Free Press asks fans to vote on the “Greatest of All Time” among Detroit sports teams

The Detroit Free Press is officially kicking off its “Greatest of All Time” series in which readers will vote for the best players on the Red Wings, Tigers, Lions and Pistons. The Free Press’s Shawn Windsor explains the contest, which will eventually pick one Detroit sports player winner to rule them all:

Starting today, the Free Press begins its “Tournament of G.O.A.T,” in which you, dear reader, are expected to vote for the Greatest athlete Of All Time from a Detroit professional sports team.

Our tournament runs through mid-July. Which gives you plenty of time to think, to debate, to consider, say, whether former Lions quarterback Bobby Layne was better than former Tigers shortstop Alan Trammell.

But back to that word — greatest. Because it can mean different things.

Are we talking about winning? About greatness relative to the history of a particular position? About skill? About identity?

About what an athlete meant to our region? About how that athlete helped define us through his athletic feats?

If that’s the case, then … it’s got to be Gordie Howe, right? Mr. Hockey. The best all-around player of his generation. Maybe of any generation.

Windsor continues, and the Free Press’s timing is ironic because it’s the second anniversary of Gordie Howe’s passing:

Windsor suggests that fans will probably end up voting between Howe, Ty Cobb, Barry Sanders and Isaiah Thomas.

I’m biased, but I believe that no Detroit athlete changed the sport he played like Howe changed his sport, all while playing a physically dominant game for a longer period of time than any other Detroit athlete.

 

Caputo discusses the Wings’ goaltending pipeline

The Red Wings have a solid number of goaltending prospects, but with the crop is in flux right now as Patrik Rybar and Kaden Fulcher may or may not be ready for prime time, Joren van Pottelberghe is still finding his way in Switzerland, and Keith Petruzzelli and Filip Larsson are a little further away as they take the college route.

Given the departure of Matej Machovsky and the likely departures of Jared Coreau and Tom McCollum, the Oakland Press’s Pat Caputo suggests that the Wings aren’t deep enough at the goaltending position to find a successor for Jimmy Howard (never mind a back-up). As such…

Continue reading Caputo discusses the Wings’ goaltending pipeline

HSJ discusses the Wings’ 2016 draft

The Free Press’s Helene St. James continues examining the Red Wings’ past 5 drafts with a discussion of the team’s 2016 draft picks. I would suggest that it’s a little early to pass judgment on the Wings’ picks, but kudos to St. James for trying:

D Filip Hronek

Drafted: 53rd.

Draft year doings: Four assists in 40 games with Hradec Kralove in the Czech Extraliga, which is the country’s top hockey league.

Draft day scouting report: On the smaller side, but good skater. Competitive and strong with the puck. Scouts were excited about his upside, and character.

Post-draft doings: Had 14 goals and 47 assists for 61 points in 59 games in 2016-17 with Saginaw (Ontario Hockey League), tying him for fourth among OHL defensemen in scoring. Joined Grand Rapids in spring of 2017 and had two points in 10 games, and made two appearances in the AHL playoffs.

Had 11 goals and 28 assists for 39 points in 67 games with the Griffins in 2017-18, second among AHL rookie defensemen in scoring. Ran one of the power-play units. Had one goal and two assists for the Czechs at the 2018 World Championship.

Next-season doings: Hronek is a candidate to push for a job with the Wings in 2017-18.

Draft assessment: Looks promising.

St. James continues…

Free Press prepares to launch ‘Best Red Wings Player of All Time’ showdown

The Free Press is about to launch a “contest” pitting 16 players against each other in a voting showdown to determine the “Best Red Wings Player of All Time.”

I know this because the Free Press posted a photo gallery of the 16 players, and I know that it’s the end of the first full week of June, some 3 weeks away from the first round of the draft on June 22nd in Dallas, so it’s the perfect time to launch this kind of thing.

I usually don’t spout off after posting stuff from other sites for a reason–I want you to weigh in and let your opinions be known, and I’m more of a news-oriented person–but to me, this one is easy.

Gordie Howe is the winner for both the player he was and the person he was. Just as other teams’ fans suggest that Wayne Gretzky or Bobby Orr changed the game at their positions, because they did, they are superb human beings, and it’s hard to move away from that triumvirate because goalies (like me) are such ecclectic, weird people.

After that, good luck. The Free Press offers Bob Probert, Nicklas Lidstrom, Steve Yzerman, Sergei Fedorov, Reed Larson, Chris Osgood, Terry Sawchuk, Alex Delvecchio, Brendan Shanahan, Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg, Sid Abel, Norm Ullman and Red Kelly as choices.

You could easily add Vladimir Konstantinov, Black Jack Stewart, Larry Aurie, Marcel Pronovost, Mickey Redmond and others to the mix, and I’d argue that your choices would nearly be arbitrary. I did a “Red Wings Mount Rushmore” for Puck Daddy a couple of years ago, and I went with Howe, Lindsay, Yzerman and Lidstrom (who was still playing at the time, by a hair’s breadth over Fedorov), but the permutations are limited by your fandom’s imagination.

Who are your #2-5, or 2-10?

I wish the Free Press luck with their vote-counting and fan-argument-separating, because it’s going to be an interesting diversion…

But you’ll have to trust me when I say that June has a way of keeping the news flowing. We really don’t get “slow” until the month-long period between mid-July and mid-August when it truly gets quiet…and even then, there’s content to be had.

As CapFriendly noted…

Sipple: Red Wings, Great Lakes Invitational = a triple-header of hockey on December 31st, 2018

The Free Press’s George Sipple reports that the Great Lakes Invitiational and Red Wings will host a “triple-header” of hockey on December 31st, 2018:

he second day of the next Great Lakes Invitational is expected to be part of a triple-header of hockey at Little Caesars Arena on Dec. 31, the Free Press has learned.

The Red Wings haven’t yet announced their schedule for the 2018-2019 season. Red Wings general manager Ken Holland said Friday that he expects the Wings to play their traditional New Year’s Eve game, although the NHL schedule hasn’t yet been finalized. The NHL schedule is expected to be released in a couple weeks.

Michigan State announced its 2018-2019 schedule on Wednesday and will play in the Great Lakes Invitational on Dec. 30-31. MSU will meet Lake Superior State in the second semifinal game at 4 p.m. on Dec. 30. Michigan Tech will face U-M in the first game at 1 p.m., according to Michigan Tech’s 2018-2019 hockey schedule.

The Great Lakes Invitational is scheduled for Dec. 30-31.The GLI’s Dec. 31 game times are slated to be 11:30 for the GLI third-place game, 2:30 for the GLI championship game, according to MSU’s hockey schedule.

Continued…

FSD’s “The Roar 313” remembers when the Red Wings Believed

Fox Sports Detroit’s “The Roar 313″ presented a video recalling the Red Wings’ 1998 Stanley Cup win in Washington, which happened just under 20 years ago (on June 16, 1998), as the culmination of the Red Wings’ 1997-98 “Believe” campaign:

 

The Athletic’s Smith talks about long quests to win the Cup, including Steve Yzerman’s pre-97 struggles

The Athletic’s Joe Smith penned a column regarding players who’ve taken a while to win the Cup.

Smith focuses on the team he covers, the Tampa Bay Lightning, in discussing Steven Stamkos’ as-yet-unfulfilled quest for the Cup and Dave Andreychuk’s 22-year quest to win a championship in 2004, but Steve Yzerman makes a cameo of sorts in the article, too:

“In ’97, with all the little things, Stevie went above and beyond,” recalled former Red Wings teammate Kris Draper. “He was on the PK, winning faceoffs, blocking shots. I think he felt he had to become a dominant two-way hockey player to give ourselves an opportunity to win the Cup. In that big moment, your best players have to be your best players, and that’s what Steve was for us.

“When you’re sitting there and see your captain blocking an Al MacInnis slapshot and he gets up and is ready to do it again, it’s contagious. You’ve got (Hall of Fame) coach Scotty Bowman looking at you, ‘If Steve Yzerman is blocking shots, you make sure you do.’”

Draper will never forget the gap-toothed smile on Yzerman’s face when he finally was handed the Stanley Cup. “All the doubts, people thinking he should be traded, some people losing confidence in Stevie,” Draper said. “Not within our room. You’re proud to win the Cup with that guy.”

Yzerman said his experience taught him patience, and perspective, keeping him from over-reacting and being too discouraged with the setbacks.

“Over the course of a long career, guys are fortunate just to win it once,” Yzerman said. “You look at a guy like Chris Kunitz, who’s won four of them. That’s unusual. Just try to win it once, so some of these guys play 20 years to win it once. Our goal here is to win more than one, but let’s try to win one. It’s a difficult thing to do, and you have to stick with it. You get knocked down, you get back up and you learn from it and keep moving on.”

Smith continues, (paywall) speaking with Jimmy Devellano and Paul Coffey as well as Stamkos and Andreychuk…

Two Things: On Cup odds and Fedorov’s Conn Smythe-worthy 1997 campaign

Of Red Wings-related note this afternoon:

1. According to the Detroit News, the Vegas odds of the Wings winning the Stanley Cup in the 2018-19 season are understandably long…

It’s not an indicator of making the playoffs, but sports betting site Bovada’s opening Stanley Cup odds aren’t kind of the Red Wings, who own 75-1 odds to win their first Stanley Cup since 2007-08.

Sixteen teams make the NHL playoffs. Only three teams — the Arizona Coyotes (80-1), Vancouver Canucks (80-1) and Ottawa Senators (100-1) face longer odds to win the Stanley Cup.

The Tampa Bay Lightning are the favorites, at 9-1. The Washington Capitals, who defeated the expansion Vegas Golden Knights to win their first Stanley Cup, own 14-1 odds, just eighth on Bovada’s list.

2. And the Hockey News’s Jared Clinton offers an in-hindsight selection of players who could have and perhaps should have won the Conn Smythe trophy during their teams’ Cup runs:

SERGEI FEDOROV, DETROIT RED WINGS — 1997
Since the NHL’s original wave of expansion, there are 57 goaltenders who have played at least 20 games in a post-season, and there’s a big gap – a chasm, really – between those netminders in terms of how often they were tested. For example, Tim Thomas faced 849 shots in 25 games during the 2010-11 post-season, but Martin Brodeur was only tested 463 times in 20 games during the 1994-95 playoffs. But Mike Vernon holds the distinction of being the only Conn Smythe-winning netminder to play in at least 20 games while seeing less than 500 shots. The Red Wings goaltender faced only 494 pucks en route to his Conn Smythe win in 1996-97, a run that saw him post a .927 SP and 1.76 GAA.

So, while Vernon’s post-season play was all well and good, it’s difficult to understand how he took the award over Fedorov, who was dynamite for Detroit. Fedorov scored eight goals and 20 points in 20 games for the Red Wings, including four game-winning goals. Better yet, two of Fedorov’s game winners came in the final against the Flyers, and Game 3 against Philadelphia was a monster contest from Fedorov. He finished that game with two goals and four points to help give Detroit to a commanding 3-0 series lead in their eventual sweep of the final.

Continued, and it really was a toss-up between Vernon and Fedorov in 1997.

“The Russian Five” to screen in Ann Arbor tonight

MLive’s Martin Slaghter reports that there will be a screening of The Russian Five tonight in Ann Arbor:

Attention Detroit Red Wings fans: If you didn’t have the chance to check out “The Russian Five” documentary, you are in luck.

The documentary will screen at 7 p.m. Friday, June 8 at the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor as part of the Cinetopia Film Festival. Tickets for the documentary are available at the box office only.

“The Russian Five” documents the story of former Red Wings Slava Fetisov, Sergei Fedorov, Igor Larionov, Slava Kozlov and Vladimir Konstantinov, who became the first all-Russian line in the history of the NHL. It documents the journey they took to escape the Soviet Union and become Stanley Cup champions with the Red Wings.