As a son of the Midwest, I grew up watching the classic battles of the Norris Division. This blog is my tribute to the frozen game. It's a place for me to share thoughts and ideas about the sport I love above all others. I've invited friends to post their thoughts here as well. I hope you enjoy. - Adam
“But He knows the way I take; When He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold.
Red Wings General Manager,
Ken Holland
You know when you start a post with a quote from the book of Job, things probably did not go well for your team in free agency.
Look, I know it's probably silly for Red Wings fans to ever complain. 4 Stanley Cups in the modern era, 25 years of playoffs, half the teams in the league being coached or run by former Red Wings employees. I get it, they've had more than their share of success.
But sometimes you need to call out stupid. I think we all knew it before, but if there was any doubt, July 1, 2016 cemented it, Ken Holland has got to go. The man is a dinosaur who the game has passed by. He looks at a league that is getting faster, younger, creative and nimble and he continues to pour money into overpaid veterans with their best years long past. He watches as teams like Tampa Bay, Chicago and Pittsburgh dominate with speed and skill and he responds by saying he needs his team to be big and slow.
Let's do a quick recap of the state of the Red Wings
Steve Ott, known for playing white supremacist characters in the off-season
Holland handed out a $31.5 million contract to a 32 year-old (Frans Nielsen). The six-year-contract actually does not expire until after Zetterberg's insane contract.
He gave Darren Helm a five-year-contract at almost the same cap hit as Johan Franzen. Helm will be 34 when that contract expires and so far has played more than 75 games in a season only four times in his career. Oh, and in his best season he scored a whopping 15 goals.
Almost $2.5 million tied up in Luke Glendening. Drew Miller and Steve Ott, with Miller potentially earning another $350,000 in a performance bonus. That trio will very likely be the worst fourth line in the NHL by a mile. Not one of them is an NHL caliber player. Detroit could easily ice a vastly superior fourth line using players on entry level contracts and use the extra cap space for flexibility in a trade. But ... grit?
Speaking of trades. Signing Miller and Ott creates a log-jam at the forward position, with Holland obviously intending to trade some forwards for much needed help on defense. The scary thing is, signing those guys means they're not the forwards he plans to trade.
$1.9 million - That's how much cap space the Red Wings are using to cover bonuses from last year and for Stephen Weiss and Jakub Kindl to not play for them this year.
These guys - Jimmy Howard (3 more years and $15 million cap hit), Justin Abdelkader (7, 7!, 7 years and $30 million), Henrik Zetterberg (5 years and $30 million), Jonathan Ericsson (4 years and $17 million), and Niklas Kronwall (3 years and $14 million)
That pretty much leaves 5-6 guys on contracts that are not terrible, though this group is probably getting smaller once Holland trades for a defenseman.
This does not look like a playoff team to me, let alone one that could advance on a serious playoff run. Unless there are drastic moves made, the "streak" dies at 25. The sad thing is, I would probably be happy to miss the playoffs if it meant Holland was canned. But by that point Holland will no doubt have already traded Detroit's first lottery pick in 25 years.
I had to bring my blog out of retirement since my favorite player Pavel Datsyuk formally announced his retirement from the NHL today. I've had many players I've loved over the years but so far only three that at one time I'd have called my favorite. The first player to win favorite status was Wayne Gretzky. Hey, I was 2 and a front runner. The second player was Steve Yzerman. His struggles to bring Detroit their first Stanley Cup in 42 years won my heart. Luckily for me by the time Yzerman retired, a new young start had emerged in Detroit, Datsyuk.
Datsyuk has been my favorite player for my entire adult life. I have examined and dissected his game more than any other. He was captivating and brought me to my feet in disbelief more times than I can remember. I've slowly been coming to grips with the end of his NHL career for the past year and a half. Still, it is with a heavy heart that I share one last tribute to his genius.
So here it is, the top 10 things I'll remember most about Datsyuk's NHL career.
The passing
Datsyuk had almost twice as many assists as he did goals in his career and at times was accused of passing when he should have shot. But one of the things that made Datsyuk such a great playmaker was his understanding of the importance of deception in passing. Similar to a quarterback who looks off defensive coverage before throwing to his real target, Datsyuk was a master at appearing to be doing one thing, while he was really setting up for something completely different.
The wicked wrister
Datsyuk's reputation as a brilliant passer was cemented early on, but his wrist shot was just as good. Every year you'd hear announcers and local press harp on Datsyuk for passing so much when he had a great shot. Much like every other part of Datsyuk's game, he could use his shot to make something out of nothing on a moment's notice. In the clip below Datsyuk has nothing to shoot at, he's off balance and going top speed, but he still threads the needle.
The backhand
Much of what made Datsyuk brilliant was that he refined every skill in a player's arsenal. One of those he turned to often was his backhand shot. This made him dangerous from a whole new set of angles and locations on the ice. The clip below is maybe my favorite demonstration. No dekes, no moves, just an impossible shot made to look easy.
The resilience
Datsyuk was successful in many ways because he was relentless. As an undersized Russian he had all sorts of biases working against him. His resilience is how a player drafted in the end of the sixth round could become a super star.
There were times, especially after his prime and as the NHL slowly let more obstruction go, when a team might seem to shut down Datsyuk. But keeping him off the scoreboard required constant attention and just when you thought you were getting the better of him, he'd make you pay. This was a pattern I saw repeated many times, none quite as stark as the clip below.
The mean streak
Datsyuk may have won four Lady Byng trophies for gentlemanly play, but make no mistake, he was fiercely competitive. And that competitive streak could turn nasty once the playoffs began. I'm not sure how many remember, but in 2008 when the Red Wings won their second Stanley Cup of Datsyuk's career, he led all Detroit forwards in hits, and fell shy of team leader Brad Stuart by just 3. In fact his 56 hits were good enough to rank 9th in the entire league for the playoffs, putting him among players like Brooks Orpik, Brenden Morrow, and Steve Ott.
Datsyuk was incredibly strong on his skates and near impossible to take off the puck. He was also a master of the hit-back, anticipating a check, sometimes even suckering in an opponent as if he were unsuspecting, only to dig in his heels and send the defender flying once contact was made.
The hockey IQ
Like most players who rise above other top players to become truly elite, one thing that set Datsyuk apart was his ability to read the play and make moves a step or two ahead of everyone else. This manifested itself in many ways throughout his game. The way he could intercept passes, or pick a players pocket. His seeing-eye, no-look passes. Sometimes you had to look for it when it wasn't always readily apparent.
Take Datsyuk's 300th career goal from this past season. At first this looks like a broken play with Datsyuk getting a lucky bounce to put home his milestone goal. Only when the replays are slowed down do you see the true brilliance. Datsyuk doesn't just gather the bouncing puck and bring it to his forehand. In the split second after the puck bounces over his teammate's stick Datsyuk recognizes he has the defender in no man's land. Boston's Torey Krug can only dive toward Datsyuk and hope his backhand attempt doesn't go in. Except Datsyuk instantly saw this and decided he had another option. He gives himself and one touch saucer pass from his backhand over the diving Krug before one-timing a perfect shot over the goalie's shoulder. These type of plays do not seem possible. But they were routine for Datsyuk.
His creativity
Probably the thing hockey fans love most about Datsyuk was the fact that he played the game differently than almost anyone before or since. You could almost say he thought the game differently. This attitude made the impossible seem possible when the puck was on his stick. Whether it was using soccer kicks or headers with the puck, vertical passes from behind the net or even flipping the script to stick check defenders to give himself more room on offense, you could count on Datsyuk to try the unexpected. This is probably the reason I'm saddest about his departure from the NHL. Datsyuk turned the rink into a gallery and we were the patrons lucky enough to see his art.
The defense
It's crazy looking back after Datsyuk won best defensive forward for three straight years and was a finalist numerous other times, but when his career started many fans questioned his defensive play. In fact, once Zetterberg joined the team following Datsyuk's rookie year I often saw this pointed out as a minor difference between the two players, Datsyuk had the extra offensive flash, while Zetterberg had the more complete defensive game. That is downright laughable now. In fact, Datsyuk leaves the NHL as arguably still a top 10 defensive forward, despite closing in on his 38th birthday. He was a master of backchecking in so many subtle ways. So frequently he knew the exact lane to take to force his man into the path of a teammate, suddenly turning a 3 on 2 into a 1 on 1 for the puck carrier.
You often hear about snipers who excelled at finding the "quiet" places undetected by the defense so they were ready to strike once the puck reached them for a one-timer. Datsyuk showed this same skill on the defensive side of the game more than any forward I can ever remember. He had a way of lurking, skating deceptively slow, before pouncing when an opposing player looked away for a split second. Sometimes this meant a tipped pass or a rushed dump out so the Red Wings could quickly regain the puck and counter-attack. Often this took the form of his famous pick-pocket takeaways. In the clip below Datsyuk deposits the puck in the net before half of the Predators even realize he's stolen it.
The magic
When Datsyuk put the whole thing together he was mesmerizing. He dubbed himself the Magic Man, and it was a perfect moniker. There is a saying about skilled hockey players that you cannot give them a bad pass. The 2014 clip below is maybe the most absurd example you could imagine. Datsyuk receives a pass two feet behind him in the middle of three defending players. In one motion he swipes the puck forward, between his legs and onto his forehand. In less than one second he's turned a likely turnover into an attack 20 feet down the ice. As if that is not enough, he then turns the standard 2 on 2 situation into a goal. I'll note that Zdeno Chara and Tuuka Rask were each finalists for top defenseman and top goalie during this season, despite looking like out-of-place AHLers on this play. That's what Datsyuk did to the very best of the world routinely.
The reminder he was human
It's fun to imagine our sports heroes are perfect, that they are good people and that they'd probably even be our best friend. There were times Datsyuk let me down. Both on and off the ice. On the ice, Datsyuk was not immune from cold streaks. While he showed flashes of his future brilliance early on, by the time Datsyuk was 28 and in his fifth season, some fans wondered if he should be traded for a proven playoff performer. Through his first 42 playoff games he'd only scored 15 points. Thankfully Detroit kept him around. This is a lesson I hope Detroit management remembers as they work to recover from Datsyuk's departure.
Easily the most disaffection I felt toward Datsyuk was during the lead up to the Sochi Winter Olympics. At the time athletes were being asked what they thought of Russia's discriminatory policies targeting the LGBTQ community. While Datsyuk did not come out forcefully for the measures, his evasive answer made clear that he supported the Russian government.
I'm certainly disheartened that Datsyuk is leaving Detroit in such a bind by not honoring the final year of his contract. But ultimately he's decided to do what is right for his daughter. I honestly can't imagine living so far from my own daughter and I don't doubt I'd lean heavily toward Datsyuk's position if I were in his shoes. One thing is certain, I will not soon forget the great memories Datsyuk created in Detroit.
