Seventeen Days...

Team Canada orientation camp

There probably aren't going to be any Red Wings on Canada's final Olympic roster below the coaching/management level, but I still feel the urge to follow that team.

Mostly to see if this line remains intact all the way to Vancouver.

All we need to do is get Iginla's name changed to Stills and we're in the money.

Odds and ends

We haven't updated in a while. It's not necissarily that news has been slow, it's that what news there is seems to either be focused on speculation over whether Patrick Kane actually beat up some guy over twenty cents, or forum arguments about whether the Red Wings Todd Bertuzzi experiement is really worth repeating (I'm willing to see how it plays out before I cast any judgement).

I heard from a friend of a friend that a blog was reporting that Elliot Friedman said that Aaron Downey's going to see if he can't be a Coyote next season, and you know what? - I'm pulling for him. I'll sure as hell miss him (so will an awful lot of Griffins fans), but it'd be good to see him back in a regular/semi-regular NHL lineup.

Puck Daddy posted an article about the new US Olympic men's ice hockey jerseys like... a week ago, but if you haven't already read it, it discusses this image, which I guess will be on the sleeves or something... I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, I'm not exactly sure if it resonates any kind of patriotic vibe for me (and I can't get over thinking that thing at the top looks sort of like a swastika), but then again, the stories in the symbolism are kind of neat, and it's not like it's the ugliest thing the United States has ever used to represent itself.

The US's orientation camp this week, which from what I can gather, involved an awful lot of press releases, playing with small children, signing autographs, and taking embarrassing yearbook pictures in front of a varied set of studio backgrounds. I'm not sure whether my favorite is Old Glory, or Dramatically lit frosted glass blocks, which, I'm not gonna lie, sort of reminds me of the bathrooms at Van Andel Arena.

But you have to agree that Brian Rafalski is totally working it in that picture.

Red Wings sign Patrick Eaves

Meet the newest Red Wing. He's the one in the foolish hat:



Unfortunately, Patrick Eaves has kind of slipped under my radar, and all that I've learned about him in the last 15 minutes is that he is a little injury prone and thankfully doesn't look like Joe Corvo (seriously, those tattoos are silly.) His stats are a bit underwhelming, but stats aren't always the whole story, and the Red Wings have a habit of bringing out the best in its players. I guess at the very worst, if he underperforms, he can be the new scapegoat. We'll need one now that Sammy's out borking with the Sedin twins.

Is it time for hockey yet?

Oh, summer....

Happy August, everyone. Ewww, August. I'm sure that by this point of the summer you all are just about ready to jump off a bridge becuase you're sick of being stuck with news stories about Alex Ovechkin's odd pre-game ritual and just want real hockey to start again. I know I am.

But luckily we have plenty of other ridiculous Red Wings related news to keep us busy. From the looks of it, Nick Lidstrom will be named captain of Team Sweden, and the roster will be once again filled with the rest of the Detroit Red Wings. They had their pre-Olympic gathering a few days ago, featuring tiny sandwiches, cult-like outfits, and Henrik Zetterberg's new haircut.

Like half the team got married this week, too. Jimmy Howard was practically forbidden from going on a honeymoon this summer by Ken Holland because it would have been too close to training camp, and Johan Franzen's wedding had to be delayed because Hank and Emma were late.

I am unable to confirm if this was because Hank was held up at the barber, but that's this blog's official speculation, mostly because the only other thing we have to speculate about is which two free agents Ken Holland's about to pull out of his ass.