Wings lose 5-2

... with Ozzie in net and is it bad that I'm having flashbacks to last season, when he let in four or five goals a game? Granted, the Wings managed to score five or six goals most of the time that happened, effectively canceling it out for the standings, so it's not like he drug us out of the playoffs (in which he totally pwned, again, so what do any of us really have to complain about?) or anything but... I think preseason's almost-hockey, the kind you can't always find broadcast and that doesn't actually count, is sort of making me antsy about stuff I probably shouldn't be worried about.

Like goalies. Whatever happened to my endless, child-like faith in Red Wing goalies? Chris Osgood let in six goals against Chicago last year and I would convince myself it was bad screening and poor defensive coverage and that he'd shutout the next game. The third goalie down in our depth chart lets in one preseason goal behind a team of prospects who haven't even cracked the AHL yet against a team we play once during the regular season, and I'm curled up in the fetal position. There's something not-right about that, and I need it to go away by October.

On a happier note, it looks like the playoffs weren't a fluke, and that Jonathan Ericsson can indeed score somewhere that isn't Rexall Place. I'm really excited about that. Look out, teams that aren't Edmonton - here he comes!

Off to a good start...

Wings 3, Flyers 1

Alright, so it was a pre-season game, which means it didn't really matter, technically, but I don't care. The Red Wings won a hockey game. This time of year, that's all it really takes to make me happy.

And that's really all I have to say about it.

I mean, I'm trying to keep a certain level of quality present in this blog, you know? Trying to keep it classy, and informative, and stuff, so I'd like to be able to say something, to present an intelligent opinion on something, but I... I've got nothing. It was a preseason game against the Flyers that I had to listen to on AM radio and my radio had a broken tuner, and I didn't even know about it until the start of the second period, so aside from being able to tell you who scored and gushing aimlessly about how excited I was to hear Ken Kal's voice and the sound of the goal horn and all 500 people at the Joe booing every time Pronger had the puck, I've got nothing.

But do I really need anything? The playoffs last year felt like they stretched on forever, game after game after game, the pressure mounting and mounting until... it was over, and I was almost relieved that I would get a break from hockey, from the tension and uncertainty and having to face the truth of how much the outcome of those games affected my mood every day. And then the off-season came, and a short three months felt like forever (part of it was probably me wanting a fresh season to start, so I could put the finals behind me) and I thought it would never end. And now the Red Wings are playing real hockey games again, against other hockey teams, in a hockey arena, and tonight they won.

Tonight the Red Wings won a hockey game. And it does matter. Because, dammit, it made me happy.

We're back!

As the start of the season draws nearer, we here at Hockeytown Static will get back into the swing of things and start posting more often. We are incredibly sorry that there were so few posts over the summer, but our dial-up internet sucks more than having to watch Sidney Crosby lift the Stanley Cup in the Joe Louis Arena.

In Red Wings world, not much has been happening. Jiri Hudler is definitely going to Russia, and Andreas Lilja might actually play, and soon. So, question of the day- Which defenseman is being shipped out to LA to make room for Lilja?

Second question of the day- What the heck are these?

I'm officially terrified.

In other news, the Prospects Tournament got underway this week, and our newest little Slovakian seems to be tearing things up.

I wish with every fiber of my being that I could have been there, but instead I was stuck at school, listening to my professor lecture about the Great Lakes drainage basin. My time would have been better spent looking at Mike Green's new website.

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.

This is not the lame summer-boringness I had intended for our 100th post

Lindsay and I don’t do so well during the off-season. It’s not that our lives stop without hockey as much as it is that the ways in which we try to trick our minds into thinking that hockey is still there occasionally interferes with our daily lives, if not our sanity.

Which is the only explanation I can give as to why I paid to see The Love Guru in theatres twice last summer.

We’re keeping busy when we can, looking for jobs (and looking, and looking, and looking…), getting sunburned, watching the Tigers (Marian Hossa dug a deep, deep hole in my heart last season, and Placido Polanco is filling it with delicious free roast beef)…

But among these normal and relatively mentally healthy activities, we’ve also been lamenting off-season moves, giggling at prospects who don’t know English very well yet, speculating about whether Sidney Crosby has a teddy bear, and, even though it’s only been out for a day, already finding reasons to bitch about next season’s schedule.

And I secretly get excited every time I hear one of Ken Daniels’ Brighthouse cable commercials.

I know that the Red Wings have the shortest off-season in the NHL this year, and hockey-related things have been happening all over the place, but I feel like I’ve just spent the last year in a strange place where no one cares about hockey and no one probably ever will.

I suddenly feel sorry for all four legitimate Nashville fans, because that’s their reality, and I’m only imagining I’m there because I’ve gone delirious from the heat. And the fact that our landline is down at the moment, so I’m posting this from a Starbucks. Being on dial-up is one thing, but whose phone line dies if they’re not in a blizzard or about to be murdered?

And I still have no idea what the crap is going on with Jiri Hudler.

But I’m not even sure if Jiri Hudler knows what’s going on with Jiri Hudler.