Modano completes the best third line in hockey (Photo Courtesy Yardbarker.com)

Some would argue that in Detroit, one can find the hockey fountain of youth. Luc Robitaille, Brett Favre Hull, Chris Chelios, Larry Murphy, Igor Larionov, among others have come to hockeytown looking for a taste of the revival water.

Most of these players have come to Detroit looking to finally be claimed a winner. They leave reviving their careers just before the end of the horizon. This year, center Mike Modano looks to follow up on the so called legend.

“Seeing older players come here and have great success, they seem to get a second wind coming here,” Modano said at his initial press conference.

Now the question really is: Can he get that second wind? Can he really be better with age? Continue reading this post »

It’s one of the most speculated and controversial positions in all of Detroit sports. If you have success, the city will always remember you. If you don’t live up to expectations, Detroit brass will replace you.

Jimmy Howard will face high expectations. (Source: Yardbarker.com)

Just ask Manny Legace.

During the 2005-2006 regular season, a record of 37-8 in the regular season wasn’t good enough. Filling in for the injured Dominik Hasek and Curtis Joseph, Legace was a major factor in another presidents trophy season for the Wings. He didn’t have the best save percentage or goals against average, but if he was replaced with any other backup in the league, chances are the Wings would have struggled to make the playoffs.

But when Detroit failed to live up to their top seed in the western conference playoffs, it was Legace who saw the axe. His lack of experience showed against the eighth seeded Edmonton Oilers. The Red Wings didn’t realize that their playoff hopes lived and died in the net.

Despite adding more talent all around the ice, It could be the same for this year’s squad.

Jimmy Howard will come into this year’s action trying to defeat the gaudy sophomore slump. Howard is now at the point of his career where he has to prove he is more than just a studded prospect. Was last year just a fluke? Can he lead our beloved Wings deeper into the playoffs? When the offense can’t be found, does he have what it takes to carry the team? This and more will all be in question in his second season in between the pipes full time.

Continue reading this post »

On July 8th the sports world saw the epitome of ego and bravado when LeBron James (aka LeDouche) held an hour long special on ESPN announcing where he will play next year.

Mikey Mo, who was gung ho about joining the Red Wings when it was apparent that nobody else wanted him, is now on the fence about his future.  With as much sarcasm as I can muster through text, the guy seriously has a lot to think about.  He’s over 40 years old, he’s knocking on retirement’s door, his franchise dropped him, and he has maybe 1 or 2 years left in the tank before he’s a liability.  His options seem to grow by the day.  Red Wings, Wild, Sharks, or golf…such touch decisions.

I think it would be very funny if Mikey Mo contacted ESPN to set up “The Decision: Part Deux” with the same cheesy audience, same ESPN sportscaster, and the same elevated platform for the interview.  At least in this instance Mikey Mo has enough accomplishments to fill an hour.

I feel for Abdelkader and Helm for being strung along like this.  I don’t think it’s a very professional thing to do on Holland’s part and he should get these 2 guys signed.  He’s already said that neither will be traded so why not pull the trigger?  Maybe Holland doesn’t want to sign on the dotted line because if Mikey Mo signs then maybe Abdelkader and/or Helm’s future with the Wings isn’t as written in stone as Holland would like us to believe.

Any picture of Modano sucks without Willa

I wrote a post about the possibility of Mike Modano joining the Motown machine and basically I didn’t think it was a good move.  I won’t go into too many details, for that you can read the post, but lets just say the only thing I would like about Mikey coming to The Big D would be seeing Willa Ford in the seats.  And all of this when it was just a rumor.

Holland met with the guy, had serious talks over hot dogs at a Tigers game, stated that he would love to see Mikey join the club, and made (in my opinion) a pretty good offer considering his age, length of contract, and viability of another championship.  Modano even stated it was the Red Wings or retirement.  So what’s the current state of affairs?

Modano is weighing his options.

He’s had competing offers from San Jose, Minnesota, and maybe Anaheim.  Minnesota is purely a sentimental offer since that is where he started his 20+ year career, but they have no chance of being serious cup contenders.  San Jose, playing a classic game of monkey-see-monkey-do, thought that Mikey must be good if Holland wants him so they needed to join in the bidding.  This makes me wonder if McLellan can make an independent decision or if he even has independent thoughts?

After all of this I’m even less excited about seeing Modano join the Wings and I didn’t that was possible.

As many of you have undoubtedly noticed the ratio of posts per day has dropped off significantly.  The primary cause has been a lack of time due to my day job and personal schedule.  I do like posting and writing about the Wings, but unfortunately I have not had the time as of late to keep track of all the news (somewhat scarce at times) of the off season.

I’m reaching out to my readers to see if there are any fans out there interested in contributing.  If so please email Frank (he is FanSided’s NHL coordinator) at therattrick@gmail.com.

I will do my best to provide you quality posts whenever I can and hopefully my work load will ease up come October.

Damon Lewis does.  I give credit where credit is due and Damon Lewis has a very creative idea.  His goal is to land a dream job with the Detroit Red Wings as a social media coordinator and what better way than to get the social audience behind him?

I first learned of Damon through Twitter when he started following Octopus Thrower and he has started a social media campaign involving Twitter, FaceBook, LinkedIn, and even Last.fm.  I’m not sure why anyone would use Last.fm, but I guess it can’t hurt your chances unless you’re a Pandora or Slacker fanboy.

I think his idea and methods are very commendable and I encourage you all as faithful Octopus Throwers to support him in his endeavors.  And to follow us on Twitter if you haven’t done so already!

My only request would be if Damon lands this dream job I should get exclusive interview.

What's the best thing about Modano? His wife!

What do you think the probability is that Mike Modano will return to Michigan to wear a winged wheel?  Last week when NOHS had the crazy thought that Modano could possibly be signed by the Red Wings I thought it was pretty far fetched, highly unlikely, and I didn’t want to see it happen.  I still don’t.

With today being the first day of “Let’s Make A Deal” there is a lot of shuffling, bargaining, and deal making going on and at the time of this writing we’re not even through the first day!  There are increased rumors that Mikey is not going to be resigned by the Stars, his projected salary would be $1M to $2M, and Holland might consider him for his experience and veteran leadership.  While his leadership and experience is attractive at a price that fits very nicely into the budget, lets not forget one glaring fact…he’s 40 years old.  I know Lidstrom is 40 too, but come on…he’s Lidstrom!

More after the break…

Continue reading this post »

You know it’s a slow news day when I run a Russian hockey site through Google Translator to get Red Wings news.  Eugene Ryasensky looks to be skipping the NHL Draft and is going straight to training camp to battle for a spot on the roster.  From a very bad translation it looks like he’s 22, he played for Neftechimik in the KHL last season, and he was nominated as one of the best defenders in the Swedish games.  Is there a Swedish games? Chances are likely that he will do well in training camp, but will play the majority of the season in Grand Rapids.  Babs may give him a go for a few games especially if we are plagued by injuries again.