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He is expected to be out for at least 4 months. From AP-
Detroit Red Wings forward Johan Franzen has suffered a torn ACL and will be out for at least four months, the team announced Friday.
Franzen was injured in Thursday night’s 3-2 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks, a game in which Franzen scored the game-winning goal during the second period.
“It’s a huge impact because he’s a huge player for us,” Red Wings coach Mike Babcock told ESPN.com’s Pierre LeBrun on Friday. “But like I always say when things don’t look good, we just have to find a way. Somebody will get an opportunity now.”
It wasn’t clear from the Wings’ announcement at what point in the game Franzen was hurt.
Franzen, a native of Vetlanda, Sweden, was Detroit’s second-leading scorer last season with 34 goals as the Wings’ back-to-back Stanley Cup bid was thwarted in seven games by the Pittsburgh Penguins. Right winger Marian Hossa had 40 goals.
The loss of Franzen, who has played his entire NHL career with Detroit, is a big blow for the Red Wing’s chances to three peat as Western Conference Champs. I wouldn’t be surprised if another Western team, particularly San Jose, Chicago, or dark horse Columbus, makes it to the Stanley Cup finals.
He played for 12 different teams in his career but he scored the most points for his final team, the New York Islanders. Enjoy your retirement Mike.
New York Islanders center Mike Sillinger decided two hip operations were enough.
The center who played for a record 12 teams during 17 seasons in the NHL is retiring because of an injured left hip.
“The decision was clear to me after dealing with hip surgery the last two seasons, Sillinger said during a conference call Wednesday. “If I was to come back and be a hero I’d be getting a hip replacement before I’m 40.”
The 38-year-old forward played in only seven games last season and had season-ending hip resurfacing surgery in January. In February 2008, he had a microfracture procedure on the hip that forced him to sit out the final 29 games of that season.
Sillinger spent three years with the Islanders and his 42 goals and 87 points were his most with any NHL team.
“It’s a big hole to fill,” Islanders general manager Garth Snow said. “Mike was good at many different things, whether it was putting the puck in the net or taking a faceoff.”
Sillinger was chosen No. 11 in the 1989 draft by Detroit. For his career, he had 240 goals and 308 assists in 1,049 games.
Sillinger said he’d like to stay in hockey but downplayed the notion that he might go into coaching right away.
“I’m just going to enjoy the kids for now and see what the future brings,” he said.
Besides the Islanders and Red Wings, Sillinger also suited up for Anaheim, Vancouver, Philadelphia, Tampa Bay, Florida, Ottawa, Columbus, Phoenix, St. Louis and Nashville.
He will be out at least four months. From ESPN-
Chicago Blackhawks winger Marian Hossa will undergo surgery Friday to repair a small tear in the rotator cuff of his right shoulder.
“Marian’s injury did not respond sufficiently to our non-operative treatment over the last three weeks so we have collectively decided today to go ahead with the surgery,” Blackhawks general manager Stan Bowman said in a statement. “Marian is a franchise player, and we want what is best for him and the Blackhawks long-term. This was a mutual decision and one we feel very confident is the right one.”
The Hawks signed Hossa to a 12-year, $62.8 million deal on July 1. The Hawks said they were aware of the injury before signing him.
Did Chicago have Hossa undergo a physical before signing him? If not, why not? At that kind of salary I would want to make sure a player is healthy.
Hossa gave the standard statement about the surgery being best for him. I’m not going to argue with other people’s medical decisions. I just wonder if Hossa knew he was hurt before signing with Chicago.
No question, Hossa is an excellent player. He scored 40 goals and 71 points last year for the Detroit Red Wings. Hossa has been well traveled of late. Since 2006 he has been with Atlanta, Pittsburgh, and Detroit before signing with Chicago.
Hossa is expected to be shelved at least four months, so he’ll miss at least the first two months of the regular season.
Which means my favorite team the Florida Panthers won’t have to try stopping Hossa in the 2009-10 NHL season. Florida and Chicago play a 2-game regular season series in Finland next October.
The upcoming schedule was released yesterday. Right away I noticed something interesting. Florida has a home and home series with Nashville.
Nov 28 and Mar 29 are when the Panthers and Predators play next season.
What I find interesting is- Florida is playing Nashville home and home for the second straight season. In 2008-09, the Panthers and Predators played on November 1st and December 23rd.
In light of the way the NHL season is set up, namely that any Eastern or Western conference team plays only play 3 home and homes in any season, Florida and Nashville shouldn’t meet home and home more than once every five years 15 western conference teams divided by 3 home and home series equals five.
Here’s a link to the 2009-10 schedule. Anyone have theories as to what happened here or am I off base?
The Czech born hockey player decided he preferred to play hockey in Russia after he filed for salary arbitration with the NHL. From AP-
The Detroit Red Wings may not be done with Jiri Hudler after all.
NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said in an e-mail Saturday that the league has opposed the forward’s signing with Dynamo Moscow, officially communicating its concerns to the International Ice Hockey Federation and the Continental Hockey League.
The NHL believes Hudler should remain property of the Red Wings because he filed for NHL salary arbitration July 5 — before signing with the Russian club this past week.
Once a player has filed for salary arbitration in the NHL, he is awarded either a one-year or two-year contract. So the league believes the moment Hudler filed for arbitration, he obligated himself contractually to the NHL for next season.
The KHL and NHL have for the most part tried to respect players who are contractually obligated to their respective leagues and not poach them away.
However, winger Alexander Radulov was still under contract with the Nashville Predators last summer when he fled to Russia.
Hudler and the NHL will most likely end up in court or mediation. Does the NHL player’s agreement say a player who files for arbitration is automatically tendered a contract? If it isn’t spelled out, the NHL may have a difficult time forcing Hudler to remain in the NHL. I understand why the league will want to fight ‘jumpers’. If a stand isn’t taken, there will be more Jiri Hudlers and Alexander Radulovs leaving the NHL for $$$ greener pastures.
He is the only American to ever Captain a Stanley Cup winning team. From AP-
Flyers defenseman Derian Hatcher retired Monday, two weeks after knee replacement surgery in effect ended his 16-year career. The 37-year-old former Flyers captain joined the coaching staff as player development coach.
“It sounded like the perfect way to stay in the game and see if I like it,” Hatcher said. “I will be watching the younger players and making sure everything runs smoothly for them. I will be involved with running the rookie camp this summer.”
On the coaching staff, Hatcher replaces former Flyer Eric Desjardins, who resigned to pursue business interests.
Hatcher underwent a right knee replacement June 1 and said afterward he did not expect to play again. He missed all of last season and played only 44 games for the Flyers in 2007-08.
Hatcher finished his career with 80 goals and 331 points in 1,045 games for the Minnesota North Stars, Dallas Stars, Detroit Red Wings and the Flyers. He also scored 33 points for 133 career NHL playoff games.
He signed with the Flyers as a free agent in 2005. He won a Stanley Cup with Dallas in 1999 and is the only American-born player to captain a team to a championship.
Hatcher was a good player but hockey is a rough sport without the type of surgery he underwent. He got out at the right time.
The 2008-09 NHL season is now over. From AP-
Max Talbot scored two second-period goals, and the Penguins overcame the loss of captain Sidney Crosby to beat the defending champion Detroit Red Wings 2-1 in Game 7 and win the Cup on Friday night.
Instead of the Red Wings becoming the NHL’s first repeat champion since winning titles in 1997 and 1998, this turned into a Penguins party. The last time Pittsburgh was crowned champion, in 1991 and ‘92, it was captained by owner Mario Lemieux.
This one wouldn’t have been possible without a clutch diving save across the crease by Marc-Andre Fleury, who denied four-time champion Nicklas Lidstrom with 1 second left.
“I knew there wasn’t much time left,” Fleury said. “The rebound was wide. I just decided to get my body out there and it hit me in the ribs so it was good.”
Hradek: 2009 Playoffs Top 10
It’s been a wild 2009 Stanley Cup Playoffs. Six of the 15 series went a full seven games and Sid the Kid became the youngest captain to win the Stanley Cup. Here’s E.J.’s favorite moments from this year. Story
Fleury was stellar in making 23 saves and erasing the memories of a 5-0 loss in Game 5 at Joe Louis Arena that put the Penguins on the brink of elimination. Pittsburgh returned home and gutted out a 2-1 win, behind Fleury’s 25 saves in Game 6, and forced the winner-take-all matchup.
*****
This was Pittsburgh’s second championship in four months, following the Steelers’ Super Bowl victory in February.
Jonathan Ericsson cut the Wings’ deficit to 2-1 with 6:07 remaining, and Niklas Kronwall nearly tied it with 2:14 left, but his drive smacked the crossbar. Detroit pressed further after goalie Chris Osgood was pulled, but Fleury stood his ground.
His last save started a wild scene that culminated in the awarding of the Cup.
I watched last night’s game. Not long into the second period, I told my wife whoever scores first is going to win. A minute or two later Talbot scored the first of his two goals. So I was right.
Pittsburgh Penguin coach Dan Bylsma becomes only the second rookie coach to win a Stanley Cup. The last time it happened was 1971.
Much will be made about Pittsburgh’s win taking place without Sydney Crosby in the lineup for half the game. Some of it will be over sensationalized. I think Detroit was the best NHL team for the 2008-09 season, but the Penguins are the champs. Enjoy it Pittsburgh fans, you will tougher time getting back to the finals next year than Detroit will.
As it stands now, hockey fans will see a repeat of the 2007-08 final. From AP-
According to multiple sources, if the Pittsburgh Penguins and Detroit Red Wings can wrap up their respective Conference final series by Wednesday night, the Stanley Cup finals likely would start on Saturday, May 30 in Detroit. In this scenario, Game 2 would be played on Sunday, May 31.
This is a change from a May 22 press release from the league that indicated that the championship series would begin on Friday, June 5, if both Conference final series didn’t end in four-game sweeps.
The Penguins can close out their series with a victory over the Hurricanes in Raleigh on Tuesday night. The defending champion Red Wings, meanwhile, have positioned themselves to advance with a win over the Blackhawks on Wednesday in Detroit.
I think Chicago is more than capable of taking Detroit to Game six. On the other hand, Pittsburgh has so dominated Carolina, I would be surprised if the series don’t end in a sweep.
I think bumping up the schedule is a good idea if the semi-finals end early. Why wait a week to begin the final round?
The NHL may be making this schedule change to accomodate NBC’s programming more than to satisfy its fans need for closure to the 2008-09 hockey year.
For the past several days, the league has been working behind the scenes with NBC, which has limited prime time real estate to devote to the Cup finals due to important “sweeps” week programming and the Tonight Show re-launch with new host Conan O’Brien.
According to wikipedia, May sweeps are over and the next isn’t till July.
NBC concentrates on just a small handful of NHL teams for their broadcasts. Two of whom are Detroit and Pittsburgh. I’m sure network executives are delighted these teams will battle it out for the Stanley Cup.
Does President Obama have a need for a new Secretary of Defense? From AP-
Detroit Red Wings defenseman Chris Chelios owes more than $78,000 in back taxes on his $2.9 million home in suburban Detroit. A team spokesman blames an accounting glitch and said the bill will be paid in full within days.
Oakland County Treasurer’s Office records cited by The Detroit News say Chelios and his wife owe $61,544 in 2007 taxes plus $16,519 in interest and fees on their Bloomfield Hills home. Treasurer Patrick Dohany says Chelios did pay his 2008 property taxes, but the house will be foreclosed if the 2007 bill isn’t paid by April 2010.
Red Wings spokesman John Hahn says Chelios changed accounting firms after the 2007 bill came due and it apparently wasn’t forwarded to his new accountants.
The explanation sounds plausible to me. If I were the accounting firm who erred, I wouldn’t want clients present or potential to know I’m that careless with my work.
With three minutes to go in the game, it looked like the Canucks would return home up three games to one. From AP-
Andrew Ladd had perfect position. When the puck came flying off teammate Dave Bolland’s stick from far away, Ladd was right in front of Vancouver goalie Roberto Luongo to tip it in.
We keep waiting for this thing to fall apart, for the kids to show their age. But the Hawks keep proving us wrong, writes ESPN.com’s Pierre LeBrun. Story
Ladd’s goal less than 3 minutes into overtime Thursday night capped a remarkable 2-1 comeback victory for the Chicago Blackhawks and tied the Western Conference semifinal series at 2.
*****
Game 5 is Saturday night in Vancouver and the Canucks will have to regroup after losing a game they apparently had sealed up. Chicago’s Martin Havlat tied it at 1 with 2:44 left in regulation after Luongo had been unflappable most of the night.
Roberto Luongo had to be unflappable, because his teammates made franchise playoff history last night. They only took 15 shots on goal, breaking a record set twenty-seven years ago.
The Canuck offense has taken at least one similar snooze in the 2008-09 NHL season. For this reason, I can’t pick this team to make the Stanley Cup finals no matter how good Luongo is.
In the other Western Conference playoff series, normalcy seemed to take over.
Johan Franzen and Marian Hossa gave the Detroit Red Wings all the offense they needed on a new line with center Valtteri Filppula.
Franzen and Hossa each scored twice to help the Detroit beat the Anaheim Ducks 6-3 on Thursday night, tying the Western Conference semifinal series at 2.
I have already been proved wrong about this series. My prediction was a Red Wing sweep. Detroit will win here, and most likely make the Stanley Cup finals for the second consecutive season.
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