The Red Wings posted a video this morning announcing that Niklas Kronwall will retire and join the Red Wings’ front office as an advisor to the GM:
Here’s the YouTube version:
The Free Press’s Helene St. James posted a report regarding Kronwall’s retirement:
Continue reading Niklas Kronwall retiresAs of Monday night, we’ve raised $813.00 of $2,000.00 to cover the entire trip’s hotel, gas and groceries.
I need to get to at least $1,000 to cover the half of the hotel bill that will be billed (approximately $800) and have $ left over for groceries and gas.
This is just going to be one of those trips where I have to keep raising funds throughout to reach my goal. The server $ set me back about $450, and due to the family illness crap, I don’t have any savings at present. :/
If you’re willing to lend a hand, that would be wonderful. https://paypal.me/TheMalikReport is the place to go, and if you’re willing to write a check, send me an email at rtxg@yahoo.com for my address.
Thank you for your time, your readership and your patronage.
Red Wings play-by-play announcer Mickey Redmond spoke with 106.7 WLLZ’s Doug Podell recently regarding his impending Celebrity Roast, which takes place this Saturday at the MotorCity Casino, and benefits the Jamie Daniels Foundation:
Listen to “Doc talks to Mickey Redmond about his upcoming Roast!” on Spreaker.Former Red Wings captain Henrik Zetterberg spoke with Aftonbladet’s Daniel Soderback this morning, mostly discussing his interest in the Swedish horse sport of trotting, but there are enough tidbits regarding Zetterberg’s post-hockey life to keep things interesting.
What follows is roughly translated from Swedish:
Zetterberg: Used to be really nervous
Former NHL star and Tre Kronor star on: Being at home in Sweden; Trotting interest; New home purchase
Henrik Zetterberg, 38, is back home on Swedish soil. Now he chooses to take up his great trotting interest again.
To Trav365, the former Detroit and Tre Kronor star tells about his feelings regarding being back in Sweden, the trotting interest and the special feeling of having his own starting horse.
“I usually get really nervous, it’s an incredible kick,” he says.
He played 1,082 games in the NHL with the Detroit Red Wings and won a Stanley Cup title. With the Tre Kronor, there was an Olympic and World Championship gold, among other things.
In September, 2018, Henrik Zetterberg announced that his career as a player was over.
“I’ve been here for a while, and now that the decision is made, it still feels a little bit strange. It hasn’t sunk in that I won’t play hockey any more,” he told Sportbladet then.
“Would take a little break”
Now, he, his wife Emma and son have moved back to Sweden in Angelholm.
Then Henrik Zetterberg took the opportunity to resume his old hobby: trotting and self-owned horses.
He bought one-year-old horse Louis, trained by Robert Bergh.
“It’s interesting, I think. I haven’t had a trotting horse since ‘Alexey’ (who made his last start in the V75 in September 2011). After that, we decided that we would take a little break because I spent most of the year in the U.S., and would pick it up when I got home. “Bergharn” heard it and then it went pretty fast. It’s such an interesting pedigree,” says Henrik Zetterberg to Trav365.
“He’s straight and honest”
Since his time as a player with Timra, Henrik Zetterberg has been in contact with Robert Bergh, since he had his base at Berg’s stable and among other things owned trotting horses ‘Aleksej’ and ‘Sex in the City’ which trained with Bergh.
“When I played in Timra, it was easy to come to his farm as it was close. The entire Timra team was there once and rode horses. The door is always open there. It’s fun that we’re only 50 minutes away from each other now, so it’s fitting,” says Zata, who praises the coach:
“Now I haven’t had a horse with anyone else, but I think that [Bergh] is a lovely person to have a horse with. He’s straight and gives honest answers and is obviously good at what he does. He has a good feeling about getting to the horses and has good solutions to problems.”
“Haven’t gotten the huge panic”
After 16 years in Detroit in the U.S., ice hockey is noticeably absent, and he’s had much to face before moving home to Sweden again.
“It feels good to be home. We stayed in Detroit all last season, so it took a little while to be prepared after 16 years over there,” he says, and continues:
“What you miss with ice hockey is very personal. I haven’t had a huge panic yet and I don’t think I’ll get it, either. The ice hockey is a completed chapter.”
“I will be going to Detroit again in September and we haven’t really decided what will happen in the future, if I’m to be involved. Right now it’s pretty nice to get away from that little neighbor and focus on getting into the system here at home. You get to spend time with family and friends and don’t have to have any limits. There’s been an incredible amount of moving, people have been relaxing and enjoying the summer and trying to get into routines with our son in daycare, among other things.”
“An incredible kick”
He has more or less grown up with trotting, admitting that he didn’t own a horse.
“I’ve been interested for a very long time, my dad and my grandfather liked trotting and played V65 and V75, so it has always been a big part of our Saturdays. I have missed it a little bit and now I have more time to be able to follow it in a completely different way, it was difficult to catch up with it before.”
You won’t saddle up completely and earn a license?
“Ha ha, no then, there are others who are better at it than me.”
Can you describe the feeling of having a starting horse?
“It’s a special feeling, an incredible kick when you have a starting horse. It’s not just the race, but everything around it. Everyone who has a horse probably knows the same thing. Above all, it’s fun to be part of the journey again and be part of the journey when it starts. What happens after that, you don’t know, but there’s so much that comes into play.”
“Losing an incredible job”
This past weekend, Henrik Zetterberg was at home when he followed the V75 and Sundsvall Open Trot at Bergsaker.
“There are fun people, it’s fun to be on the stable hill and mingle with your neighbors, that’s part of it. I was at the Sundsvall Open Trot for the very first time in a long time, and you notice again what a fun sport it is. There are incredibly knowledgeable people and it’s a great operation to make everything work every day, it’s an incredible amount of work that’s put in so that we normally get the chance to participate.”
Finally, it’s been a few years ago now, but how are you getting started with one of your horses?
“I usually get really nervous, I didn’t think that I would. But it doesn’t matter when it’s
Finally, it was a few years ago now, but how are you getting started with one of your horses?
“I usually get really nervous, I didn’t think I would. But it doesn’t matter what it is when it’s a starter, it can be a regular qualifying race or a big one, you get nervous, it’s a wonderful feeling, ha ha.
MLive’s Ansar Khan issues a 2019-2020 season outlook for Taro Hirose this morning. Khan suggests that Hirose will crack the Red Wings’ crowded forward lineup while looking to improve upon a strong 10-game stint with the Wings in 2018-2019:
The Red Wings signed the free agent Hirose in March, after Michigan State finished its season, and he made an immediate impact with his playmaking ability and hockey sense. It gives him the inside track to earn a job in training camp over a group of other young forwards that includes former first-round picks Filip Zadina, Joe Veleno and Evgeny Svechnikov.
Hirose could start on the second line, with Andreas Athanasiou and either Frans Nielsen or Valtteri Filppula at center.
He planned on spending most of the off-season in metro Detroit, training and working on his game. He is focused on better puck management – he committed too many turnovers in the last few games – and being shiftier on the ice. He’s not going to outmuscle anyone at his size, so he needs be quick with his first couple of steps to gain separation.
Crain’s Detroit Business posted the summary of a radio program called, “Caring For Kids” (hold on, I have a point here), and Ken Daniels and Lisa Daniels-Goldman were two of the participants in the program. This part is important in terms of a) where the Jamie Daniels Foundation is going and b) the Celebrity Roast of Mickey Redmond, which takes place this upcoming Saturday at the MotorCity Casino:
Burns: Where do you want the foundation to be in two years?
Daniels: Digging a hole in the ground where we’ll build the recovery center.
Jamie was in a safe place until he was patient brokered and wound up in a place that wasn’t safe. Our goal is to build—with the help of Michigan State Housing Development, our foundation and some great people—a long-term, safe sober living place. It’s a place that’s going to have job placement and all meetings on site. Addicts need direction every day. That’s my vision: to build a recovery home so others don’t have to go through what Jamie went through.
Burns: Tell us about the inaugural Jamie Daniels Foundation Celebrity Roast.
Daniels-Goldman: We’re roasting Mickey Redmond. He obviously has very strong shoulders, but I’m not sure if he knows what he’s in for.
Along with the roast we have an online silent auction that you can register for and start bidding on now. The roast is on Saturday, September 7 at Motor City Casino Soundboard. It includes a live auction too.
Visit Jamiedanielsfoundation.org for tickets and to register for the silent auction.
I’ve got some good news and some bad news…
The good news is that the Bluehost and Jetpack bills came in way under what they usually are, so the total was closer to $400 than $700.
The bad news is that I’ve got $400 in my Paypal account, and between the drive up and the fact that I’ll be paying for half of the hotel bill (between $800 and $900) when I arrive, things are shaky there.
I understand that there may be some fundraising fatigue, but if you can lend a hand at https://paypal.me/TheMalikReport, I would be tremendously grateful.
The small amounts help get me up the road just as much as the big ones do, and right now I need your help to get up to TC and file my reports.
Thanks for your time and your readership.
The Hockey News’s Matt Larkin answers a reader question regarding the Hockey Hall of Fame candidacies of Curtis Joseph, Chris Osgood and Daniel Alfredsson in part with a staid answer regarding Osgood’s case for the Hall of Fame…
Osgood has the weakest case of the three. He was a dependable caretaker goaltender on a collection of powerhouse Detroit Red Wing teams that were peppered with Hall of Famers. He didn’t receive a single Vezina vote in 13 of his 17 seasons. It’s fair to call him underrated, as he posted some outstanding numbers during his best years with Detroit, but it was also the equivalent of piling up home runs during the steroid era. Many goalies had ridiculous numbers during the Dead Puck years, so Osgood’s stats stand out less when you juxtapose them with those of his peers. He was a good goalie but, even at his best, he was closer to top-10 in the league than top-five.
(For better or worse, Osgood won 3 Stanley Cups, too)
And I honestly disagree far more vehemently with Larkin regarding this point than I do regarding his take on Osgood’s career:
If I had my way, I’m not sure I’d put any of these guys in the Hall. I think the Hockey Hall of Fame is too lenient and should be reserved for players who were considered among the most dominant at their positions for half a decade or more. That’s why I prefer seeing a shooting-star career like Eric Lindros’ earn Hall recognition than someone who was merely “quite good for a long time.”
I’m fine with the Hockey Hall of Fame being for both “shooting stars” and players who were “really good for a long time.” As far as I’m concerned, the company is too exclusive for its own good, and the Selection Committee has, in my opinion, done a shitty job of honoring international pioneers, women players who were stalwarts at their position but didn’t win awards over extended careers.
The Hockey Hall of Fame is supposed to be a Hall of fame, and it’s too often an exclusive wing thereof. I’d love to see more players added, not fewer players.
UPMatters.com’s Peter Curi spoke with the spokesman for the Calumet Colosseum, which won this year’s Kraft Hockeyville USA competition.
The small arena in the Keweenaw Peninsula earned a $150,000 prize from Kraft, affording the rink extensive renovations. The rink will also host an exhibition game between the Red Wings and St. Louis Blues on September 26th:
“Well short term, the community is going to get national coverage like the community has never seen before,” said John Carroll, Spokesman, Calumet Colosseum. “Long term winning an award like this, with the kind of improvements we’re making here in the building, in the future when teams come up here from downstate to play us, they’re going to enjoy the benefits of all of the work we have put into the building,” said Carroll. “The new ice plants, sound system, heaters, and everything that goes along with that. It’ll be an incredible facility.”
The prize money will not cover all the Colosseum’s expenses. So they need your help.
“We’re making a lot of improvements to the building and it’s more than a hundred and fifty thousand dollars ($150,000), it’s more than what we won from Kraft, and that’s why we’re doing the fundraising, that’s why we have the merchandise and that’s why we’re selling the raffle tickets and the prize is a fifteen-thousand dollar ($15,000) gift certificate for John Deere products and the winner can pick up whatever they want. But all the money that we raise from the merchandise, all the money we raise from the raffle tickets, all of that goes right back to the Colosseum,” said Carroll.
Continued; here’s UPMatters.com’s video report:
Continue reading Calumet Colosseum’s Kraft Hockeyville win means more than hosting an NHL preseason gameDetroitRedWings.com’s Dana Wakiji recaps Red Wings Night at last night’s Detroit Tigers game, and she notes that Dylan Larkin is not unaware of the “perks of the job”:
Wings alternate captain and Michigan native Dylan Larkin was there to throw out the first pitch before the Tigers took on the Central Division-leading Minnesota Twins.
Before that, Larkin had the chance to meet Tigers manager Ron Gardenhire, the former Twins manager, in his office.
Even though it was his second time doing so, it was still a special thing for Larkin to be able to take the mound at a place he visited as a kid.
“For myself to be out there and throwing a pitch at Comerica Park before an MLB game is pretty surreal,” Larkin said. “It’s just another cool perk of being here and playing in Detroit. The sports teams, we’re all united and we have a great sense of unity and pride of representing our city and it’s just cool for myself and my family to come out here and enjoy this.”
Continued, and here”s Larkin’s first pitch:
.@Dylanlarkin39 finds the back of the n̶e̶t̶ glove. #MotorOn | #LGRW pic.twitter.com/0IwRLObWTE
— Detroit Tigers (@tigers) August 30, 2019
