Decisions...

The Spring Recital is a big show. I mean, the Nutcracker is THE show, but the Spring Recital is for the dancers, not the audience. This is what they prepare for all year. There are no auditions, because you are already in if you are in a class. You audition for the Nutcracker. Not all of your friends make it in, and sometimes, you don't make it in. Its a high pressure environment, one which my daughter, Skyylynn (ballerina, above) has overcome for the last 5 years, auditioning for and receiving a part in dancing's "Big Show" each of the 5 years. The fear of watching your friends perform while you watch is very real, and so far, she has only been on the stage looking at the crowd, and not the other way around. The Nutcracker is as close as dancing gets to hockey, because the show must go on. Parents and instructors coach their kids, and you hear stuff like:

"OK, if you feel a little pain, don't show it until you are off stage..."

"Unless you are obviously injured, try to work through it..."

"Don't you dare miss a cue unless you are unconscious..."

And so on. Hell, I'm guilty of all of that, having coached Skyy to ignore the crowd, the lights, and above all, personal discomfort. There are 8 shows, sometimes two a day, and after all, pain is secondary.

The show MUST go on. Period.

Until now. Three days prior to the big Spring Recital, Skyy fractured her patella (kneecap). Half jokingly, I say to her, "It's just fractured, right? You still going to do your recital?" and started walking away. After all, I was just trying to cheer her up. Surely she knows the difference between the Spring Recital and the Nutcracker. There's no way she could...

"Yeah, I could do it."

I froze. OK, so yeah, I had said all these things, but now I was being called out. My baby was telling me that she could do it. A tap, jazz, and ballet routine on a fractured patella. I turned, cleared my throat, and took a breath, preparing to deliver a resounding "NO", but my breath caught in my throat, and a bunch of memories ran in streaming video through my head like a filmstrip in super fast forward:

My father's stories of playing injured on the soccer field.

Me and my brothers in high school rowing with a myriad of injuries, with my father's OK.

My son being carried off the soccer field, only to return in the second half, with my OK.

Steve Yzerman playing the entire Stanley Cup run on one leg.

So how could I really tell her no? All of our heroes played injured, right? Was this not her chance to play injured, and stick it out and be the hero? Had she not already seen her Dad and brother do this very same thing? Well....no. She hadn't. Not really. I finally spoke, and what came out was not "no" but "let me call your Papa". So I called my dad, 40 year veteran of Sports Medicine Physical Therapy. He would know. Midway through the conversation, I realized that i should have just said "no" because that's exactly what he was going to say, and I knew it. Skyylynn represents fully 33.34% of his grandchildren, and he sure as hell wasn't going to jeopardize a lifetime of dancing for one Spring Recital.

I explained all of this to Skyy, who looked at me levelly and in a matter-of-fact voice told me that she knew that she wasn't going to be able to do it. Great, I thought. She understands! In our family, playing hurt is a given. We have all done it, from hockey to soccer to softball and on and on. Me, the wife, the step kids...now my kids. Still...I would always wonder if she could have, right? No. The end of our conversation was her telling me what I really knew all along:

She said: "This is just Spring Recital dad, its not like its the Nutcracker or anything."

More 2am ramblings

This year, it seems, is the Year for Goaltender shopping. Seems like there are TONS of goalies to go around. Do the Wings REALLY need another one? Barring a catastrophic Jimmy Howard sophomore slump, which Chris Osgood might very well be able to cover, they really don't. We have promising netminders playing for the Griffins, right?

The Red Wings have agreed to sign Valteri Filppula's older brother, Ilari. They aren't twins, but maybe they might have a Sedin-like affect on the Red Wings. They are brothers for chrissakes, they know each other better than anyone else, and have that almost-telepathy that siblings share. Makes a blind, no-look, between the legs pass in traffic a little more likely, doesn't it? Jim Nill says that he will have to earn his position on the team, but doesn't everyone? OK, Nick Lidstrom is pretty safe, but everyone else has to earn it.

Todd Bertuzzi got a raise. Whatever. Part of me could care less, but a little voice tells me to trust Kenny Holland's judgement. Has he ever steered us wrong?

Speaking of GM's, can you imagine Kenny Holland GM-ing another team? We must all understand that GM Holland and AGM Jim Nill are in the crosshairs of EVERY team in the NHL. The other teams try to lure them away with contracts of untold proportions. Luckily, the Wings have signed them to another five years ahead of time, so they are actually guaranteed to be here for another six years, since this coming year was already covered by their previous contracts. Speaking of contracts, it looks like Abdelkader, Eaves, Helm, Meech and Miller are staying, and getting a slight raise into the $800K range. Which means that pretty much takes up the rest of the cap for the Wings.

Who do we get for an enforcer? Bertuzzi? Yeah right. After the Steve Moore thing, he is under the NHL's microscope for life. If he even hints at committing an intent-to-injure penalty, he is probably gone. Again. So Holland has, what, maybe league minimum to spend on a real enforcer? Take a guy from the AHL? Is there even an enforcer on the Griffins?

In any case, if the Wings stay healthy, they will be better at the start of the 2010-11 season with the addition of Hudler and a healthy Filppula and Cleary than they were at the start of the 2009-10 season. Get Johan Franzen going and a good season from Jimmy Howard, and the Wings are going to at least be in the playoffs again.

Wait, what?

OK, so in my last post, I was talking about Wings taking pay cuts to stay with the team they love, and the family they have come to be a member of. Apparently, Todd Bertuzzi didn't get the memo. Kenny Holland gave him a contract for two years last week, and Bert has yet to sign it, or even make a public comment. Is it because there was a pay cut involved? Maybe a raise, but not enough? What the hell is he holding out for? He didn't really impress last season, racking up 80 penalty minutes, none of which were major penalties. Although all things considered, he did a little more good than bad. Does anyone else think that Bert is a little gun shy about fighting after being re-instated in the league?

In my opinion, Bert can take it or leave it. There are many other UFAs out there that will gladly take his spot.

Everyone's Taking Pay Cuts, but...

Nick Lidstrom re-signs with the Red Wings and takes a pay cut. Tomas Holmstrom may just follow that example, if he hasn't already. Todd Bertuzzi, Justin Abdelkader, Darren Helm, Patrick Eaves, and Drew Miller are probably not getting raises, so now the Wings have plenty of room under the cap, whatever it goes up to this year.

What does that leave us with? $5 million or so? The Wings are certainly not going to leave a cap surplus if they can sign someone, so who's going to get it? Brendan Smith is already signed. Is one of the guys I already listed going to get a raise? Is Drew Miller even going to be here, or is he going to Buffalo? What the hell does Kenny Holland have up his sleeve this year? Granted, if all those people sign, the Wings will have like $1.3 million left, more if the cap goes up. It probably wont drop, and if Miller departs, that will give the Wings another, what, $.8mil? $1mil? How about I get the rumor mill started right now? This is what happens when you start thinking about shit at 2:30 in the morning. Ready?

Patrick Marleau? He's 31, still young by Red Wings standards, right? Only problem is, he comes with a $6.3mil cap hit. So...probably not unless the Wings do some serious housecleaning, which isn't in the cards. Still...maybe the Wings can get Pavol Demetra and his $4mil cap number. HA! Right...but you were thinking about it, weren't you? No? Oh, OK.

Now for the serious talk. The Wings need another "ready to play" goalitender after Larsson left, right? So scroll down to the bottom of the UFA goalie list and...

*GASP*

Is that Michael Leighton's name? Who knew he was a free agent? Nobody is even talking about it, since he is still playing in the finals. Really? This is what passes for "serious talk" around here? Sure. The Wings still have Osgood, so why the hell would they need another goalie until 2011? Buuuuuuut.....his cap hit would be really, really small, and he is playing out of his head. Heh, maybe we could even get Ville Leino back.....wait, what? Did I say that out loud?

OK, two more names for you to chew on: Anybody thinking about the almost-certain exodus of Ruslan Fedotenko from the Penguins? Could be a deal at a $1.8mil cap hit, right? Maybe he will follow the current trend and take a pay cut to play in Detroit. Because everyone wants to play in Detroit, don't they? Hell, its only like 7 hrs away, and he's going to a new arena regardless, so wouldn't now be a good time for a move? Just sayin...

An even better deal, with a $1.6mil cap number, could be Joe Pavelski. (Although I don't know how his cap hit is so low, doesn't he pull down like $4mil with the (stupid) Sharks?) But still, the guy is like 26 years old so he is pretty young yet, no older than Jimmy Howard. Why not? He's pretty good, hopefully not a flash in the pan. And it would be really cool to take him away from the (stupid) Sharks and win a Cup with him. That would be hilarious, especially since the Wings would probably have to go through the (stupid) Sharks to get there. As if the curse of Arcturus Irbe won't be enough to keep the (stupid) Sharks from winning a Cup.

Yet another thing to think about is that there is NO...FUCKING...WAY the Chicago Blackhawks are getting in under the cap next year. Thankfully, Marian Hossa is locked up because I would rather get a large, full color tattoo of Patrick Roy's face on my taint than pick up Hossa again.

So yeah, this IS the best I can come up with right now, it is after all 3:00am...so all of you can start throwin stones and pokin holes in my theories. At least I am thinking outside the boards. What the hell are the rest of you doing at this hour besides geeking out on your computer or PS3 playing Modern Warfare online while scarfing a whole box of Twinkies?

Thought so...

A Substandard Game Review

So there I am, watching the Stanley Cup Finals...Excuse me, I think I just threw up in my mouth a little. In stark contrast to the first game goal-a-thon, Game 2 was a little tighter. I think I may have taken a nap, too, judging from the drool marks on my mustard-stained t-shirt. At least, I hope that's drool...

Anyways, I noticed that Chris Pronger is just about as annoying as that guy that just ate an onion-and -garlic sadwich with sauerkraut and HAS to sit next to you on the empty bus and strike up a conversation. Whats with the trash talk? And the puck stealing? Who actually cares if he steals the puck? It's not like he can't afford to pay for it. The Flyers are down 2-0, and they are still talking shit. Even with Vile (yeah, I mis-spelled that on purpose) Leino, as well as he is playing, they are still losing. Even so, Red Wings fans are wanting to smear Leino with brown gravy and throw him into a pit filled with starving wolverines. Which sucks, because the Flyers are my cousin's favorite team. Not that that has anything to do with it.

Back to the game. 37 minutes into the game, I decide that nothing will happen and I go to take a leak. While I am standing in front of the john, I hear the Chicago fans cheering. What the fuck? I leave for two seconds and ... I hear more cheering, louder. Must be a fight, I think as I stand there, wondering when the stream will end. I mean, I can't just STOP, and it won't be much longer. When I am finally done, I go out to find that the Hawks have scored TWO goals. Thinking I miht see something, I watch the rest of the game with no bathroom breaks.

And nothing happens.

Philly scores one goal. I saw that one, and I think that my cousin is now considering coming to my house to lock my bathroom during games. Which will be quite a trick, since he lives in New Jersey, and i live in Washington.

State.

3100 miles away.

Thats a long way to go to prevent a guy from taking a leak for 2.5 hrs.

Another Year...

So, Nick Lidstrom is coming back. And, he took a pay cut. Classy. So he's back for one more year, and he gave us a little cap space, which means that both Tomas Holmstrom and Todd Bertuzzi should be back. The few of you who voted in last months poll said that Bertuzzi would be out. So now it looks like he will be back too. Jiri Hudler signed for two years, which allows Mike Babcock to put Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg on a line together, and put Hudler on his own line. How do you think that will shape up? See this months poll.

Who else are we going to get? What ideas are rolling around in Kenny Hollands head? I am sure he has some good ones and I would sure like to take a gander at his clipboard...