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Zetterberg
Passes Teammate and Fellow Swede Holmstrom on All-Time Points
Lists
By Chris
Turner, Zetterbergfan.com, January 29,
2010
Points haven’t come
easily recently for Red Wings star forward Henrik Zetterberg. But
tonight, with a goal and an assist in a big 4-2 win over the
division rival Nashville Predators, Hank moved up on a few all-time
points leaders lists.
Zetterberg assisted on
captain Nicklas Lidstrom’s 2nd period power-play goal,
giving the Wings a 2-1 lead.
Later, with Detroit
desperately trying to hold on to a 3-2 lead halfway through the
3rd period, Z scored an insurance goal, securing the
victory. Zetterberg took a pass from linemate Pavel Datsyuk at
center ice and skated into the offensive zone, firing an initial
shot that was deflected off of Predators defenseman Shea Weber. The
puck bounced off of the end-boards and back to Henrik, who had
beaten two defenders. Z picked up the puck at the red line below the
left face-off circle and wristed a zero angle shot at goalie Dan
Ellis, who appeared to have the near-side post covered. Somehow, the
puck squeezed between Ellis’s armpit and into the net just as it
began to lift off of its moorings. The goal was reviewed but stood
for Zetterberg’s 13th of the season.
The goal and assist in
tonight’s game give Hank his 445th and 446th
career points (196 goals and 250 assists) moving him past long-time
teammate and fellow Swede Tomas Holmstrom (445 career points) into
16th place on the Red Wings All-time career
points leaders list.
The two points also
moved Zetterberg past countryman and former Timra (Swedish Elite
League) teammate Fredrik Modin (444 career points), as well as
Holmstrom, into 22nd on the all-time NHL career points list for Swedish-born
players.
Marian Gaborik VS Henrik
Zetterberg
Zetterberg Helps Combat House
Fires
By Kelli Kearly, Redwings.nhl.com, January 22nd,
2010
Henrik Zetterberg and the Red Wings are
asking fans to help combat household fires by bringing smoke
detectors to the upcoming home games on Jan. 23 and Jan. 29, in
coordination with the Wings’ eighth annual Smoke Detector
Collection.
Detectors will be collected when the Wings take on
the Los Angeles Kings (Jan. 23) and the Nashville Predators (Jan.
29) at Joe Louis Arena.
Zetterberg will personally match the
total number of smoke detectors donated by fans, as well as provide
autographed Red Wings memorabilia for prizes going to lucky fans
that participate in the collection.
“The assistance we receive
from fire departments throughout the state and the work they do is
tremendous," Zetterberg said. "I am proud to, once again, be part of
such a worthwhile cause.
”Our fans have been very supportive of
this program and with all of us working together, we can help get
smoke detectors into the homes of those in need.”
The collection
is part of a continuing effort to raise awareness to the importance
of having working smoke detectors in every home and decrease the
number of household fires throughout Michigan this winter. Zetterberg
has served as the team spokesman for the program for four
years.
CBC.ca,
January 21, 2010
At 29, Henrik
Zetterberg has an Olympic gold medal, an IIHF World Championship and
a Stanley Cup on his
résumé. (Bruce
Bennett/Getty Images)
Henrik Zetterberg is
the very embodiment of the best in Swedish hockey: successful,
industrious, skilled, clean and tough. So perhaps it should not come
as a surprise his chances to play at the 2010 Olympics were put in
jeopardy by a hard check - from a fellow
Swede.
It happened on Dec.
17, 2009, with Tampa Bay playing Zetterberg's
Detroit Red Wings. Zetterberg was levelled with a hard but clean
body check from fellow Swedish national team member Mattias Ohlund.
The check resulted in a slight separation of Zetterberg's left
shoulder, putting him out of action for a few
weeks.
"It was a clean hit,"
Zetterberg said. "I reached for the puck instead of going for his
body, and he made a good hit. Next time I won't do the same
thing."
A fitting response
from Zetterberg. Part of the gritty generation of Swedes that
followed the more artistic generation of three decades ago, the
shaggy forward from the little town of Njurunda has
an Olympic gold medal, an IIHF World Championship and a Stanley Cup
on his résumé, and he is only 29.
More important, he
makes things happen. No mere passenger when the Red Wings won the
Stanley Cup in 2008, he scored the cup-winning goal and was voted
the Conn Smythe Trophy winner as the most valuable player of the
playoffs. And he had a goal and an assist when Sweden won gold at the 2006 Winter
Games final with a 3-2 victory against Finland.
Zetterberg grew up
playing soccer and hockey but settled on hockey in his early
teens.
"I'm from up north in
Sweden and hockey is
bigger up there than soccer, so it was an easy choice," he
said.
He went on to play for
Timra IK and helped the team move up to the Elitserien, the top
league in Sweden.
The Red Wings'
extensive European scouting system took note of Zetterberg and
drafted him 210th overall in 1999 - one of the all-time steals. He
made his debut with the Wings in 2002, and his 22 goals made him the
runner-up in rookie-of-the-year voting. His scoring totals have
risen almost yearly since (with time off to return to Timra and be
the Elitserien's top scorer during the 2004-05 NHL lockout), and
through the end of the 2008-09 season he had 183 goals, 222 assists
and 405 points to his credit.
In Detroit,
Zetterberg is an essential component of what was the club's Swedish
Five, at least until Mikael Samuelsson left the Red Wings last
summer. Four members of that quintet will star for the Tre Kronor in
Vancouver: Zetterberg and Tomas
Holmstrom up front, Nicklas Lidstrom and Niklas Kronwall in the
back. Samuelsson, to the surprise of some, was not selected for
Sweden's national
team.
"That's who's been coming
through all year (role players). We wouldn't have any wins if it
wasn't for those guys. It's not like our big guys are scoring like
crazy. It's been a team thing all year long. Because our power
play's been like it was tonight again, just stagnant and standing
around a lot, we need those guys.
-
Red Wings coach Mike Babcock (on Datsyuk and Zetterberg not
producing as expected.) January 21, 2010.
Red Wings' Mike Babcock: Team's injuries reason for
Pavel Datsyuk's drop in
production.
By Ansar Khan,
Mlive.com, January 20th, 2010
Henrik Zetterberg, who
has only one more goal and one more point than (Pavel) Datsyuk,
acknowledged his own need to produce more.
"It's not just
Pav, it's the same for me," Zetterberg said. "But there's no
excuses. It doesn't matter if we have players injured or not, we
should be able to create chances and score some goals. We just got
to be more assertive when we get the chances."
Getting
reunited on a line with Zetterberg has yet to spark Datsyuk, who has
only one goal and two assists in seven games since his fellow star
forward returned from a shoulder injury.
The History of
#40 in Professional
Sports.
By Chris Turner, Zetterbergfan.com, LAST
UPDATE: January 18th,
2010
ESPN asked the question; who was the
finest athletes to wear uniform numbers
00-99? Henrik Zetterberg made the fans top five
#40’s. Which got me thinking about who are the best players in the
history of hockey, football, baseball, and basketball to wear No.
40? Who was the first to ever wear # 40 in each sport? What other
athletes in Detroit Sports wore the number? What about Detroit Red
Wings who wore it before Zetterberg? So, I began to research about the athletes who wore
the number, and what a number means to the players that wore them.
Z’s Hot Again; gets Goal and Assist against
Blackhawks
By Chris Turner, Zetterbergfan.com,
January 18, 2010
After
the ugly loss against the New York Islanders, I was saying Hank
would get hot soon. He has had two goals and three assists in the
three games since.
Zetterberg
was on a 12-game goalless streak with no points in the previous six.
He needed a goal to get things going again, and he finally netted
one against the Carolina Hurricanes. Then, Henrik collected a pair
of assists in a solid effort against the Dallas Stars on Saturday.
Yesterday, Z really picked up his game, putting 8 shots on net,
setting up a critical goal, and potting a power-play goal of his
own, helping to force a come-from-behind shootout against the
Western Conference leading Chicago Blackhawks.
It
looked like it could be another run-away victory for the divisional
rival Blackhawks, taking an early two-goal lead amongst a mysterious
flurry of consecutive penalty calls against the Red Wings in the
1st period of Sunday’s match. But Detroit was
determined to make a game of it and the top line of Zetterberg,
Pavel Datysuk, Todd Bertuzzi, and captain Niklas Lidstrom led the
way.
Facing
a two-goal deficit with less than a minute remaining in the
1st, Zetterberg stole a pass attempt by former Red Wings
Marian Hossa in the Wings defensive zone. He deked Chicago’s top-pair defenseman Brent Seabrook
and carried the puck out of Detroit’s end, sending a
give-and-go pass across to Bertuzzi. Finding himself double-teamed
entering Chicago’s zone, Bertuzzi slipped
the puck over to Hank at the top of the right face-off circle.
Sensing Datsyuk and Lidstrom trailing the play, Zetterberg patiently
drew Seabrook to the right and dropped a pass back to Pavel. Datsyuk
faked a slapshot and zipped the puck over to Lidstrom for a quick
shot over the shoulder of Blackhawk’s goalie Antti Niemi. The
crucial goal made it a 2-1 game after one period and gave the Wings
momentum.
The
momentum carried over. And with Detroit on the power-play 8:45 into
the 2nd period, Zetterberg displayed amazing skill and
was able to tie the game with a tally of his own. The play was set
up by Datsyuk fighting off a few stick checks and sending a bouncing
pass in Z’s direction as he entered the offensive zone. Henrik was
somehow able to settle the jumping puck and redirected it skate to
stick, then took it from his backhand to forehand, moving around the
outstretched stick of Seabrook and burying it through Niemi’s
five-hole.
The
goal was Hank’s 12th of the season in his 40th
game played.
The
Blackhawks went on to win 4-3 in a shoot-out. But, the Red Wings
fought hard, were able to come back twice, and force overtime for a
much-needed point in the standings. Zetterberg had several chances
to win the game including, hitting the cross-bar and being stopped
on a breakaway in overtime, as well as missing on his shoot-out
attempt.
With
his current mini-streak of five points, Hank has re-taken the team
lead in points passing Datsyuk with 37 points (12 goals and a
team-high 25 assists). Z is now on pace for 22 goals and 46 assists
for 68 total points in 68 games played this year. However, I predict
he will get 27 goals and tie a career high with 49 assists in around
72-73 games by the end of the season.
Finally! A
Goal!
By
Chris Turner, Zetterbergfan.com, January 14,
2010
It’s
been 13 consecutive games played and eight games missed, but Henrik
Zetterberg has finally put the puck in the back of the net again! I
was starting to get worried. I was muttering “come on, Z” everytime
he was on the ice, just hoping, somehow, he could get one. Just one
lucky bounce, to get off the second worse goal scoring drought of
his 470 game career.
14:40
into the third period, with his Detroit Red Wings desperately
holding on to a 2-1 lead over the lowly Carolina Hurricanes,
Zetterberg finally got a goal. Line-mate Todd Bertuzzi stole a weak
backhand pass from Carolina defenseman Niclas Wallin
along the right wing boards and threaded the needle with a pass
through the crease to Zetterberg, streaking in from the front of the
net. With his blade on the ice, Henrik redirected the perfect pass
into the open net behind goalie Cam Ward. The goal is just Z’s
11th in 38 games played so far this season.
Zetterberg
had gone the last 12 games played without scoring a goal, his
longest goalless streak since a
14 game skid from December 12th, 2002 to January 8th, 2003 (his
rookie season). He had also gone the past six games without
recording a single point. And, it was only his 2nd goal
in the past 19 games. All this for a star forward who averages about
30 goals and 40 assists a season.
As
of right now, Hank is on pace for just 21 goals and a solid 43
assists in 68 games. However, I think it is likely that he will get
hot soon, and will probably get closer to 26 or 27 goals and around
45 assists in about 72 or 73 games.
Could
Goal Scoring Drought End against
Islanders?
By
Chris Turner, Zetterbergfan.com, January 12, 2010
This
season is not going the way you would expect it to be going for
Henrik Zetterberg. It has been a year in which his production has
been hampered by injuries, his own, and his teammates.
Hank
has played in just two games since returning from a separated
shoulder injury he suffered from a hard
shoulder-to-shoulder check from Swedish defenseman Mattias Ohlund
in
the first period of a 3-0 win over Tampa
Bay on December
17th. That open-ice hit cost Z eight games and is now
affecting his play. He has no points since returning to the lineup.
However,
while his own injuries have no doubt been a contributor to
Zetterberg’s struggles, it’s certain that injuries to other Red
Wings forwards are holding back his offensive numbers as well.
Henrik is on a five game streak with no points, that precedes his
shoulder injury. His production is obviously affected by significant
time missed by forwards Johan Franzen, Dan Cleary, Valtteri
Filppula, and now Tomas Holmstrom. Combine this with the off-season
departures of Marian Hossa, Jiri Hudler, and Mikael Samuelsson, and
the losses of quality linemates adds up.
Unlike
seasons in which Zetterberg has been a 40 plus goal scorer, this
year, Hank has had no one to set him up. Z is goalless in the past
11 games he has played in. He hasn’t scored a goal since November
28th in a 4-3 shoot-out victory over the St. Louis Blues, on a lucky
bounce off the elbow of Blue’s defenseman Barrett Jackman. That is
the only tally Hank has recorded in the past 17 games. He is
currently on pace for just 20 goals this year, his lowest total
since 2003-04 when he scored 15 goals in just 61 games, also due to
an injury. Zetterberg’s current 11 games in a row without a goal is
his longest streak since a 14 game skid from December 12th,
2002 to January 8th, 2003 (his rookie
season).
Henrik
also started this season scoring just one goal in the 1st
ten games. He only played one preseason game due to a groin injury,
and had to get up to speed and get his timing while playing actual
regular season games.
There
has been no period of time this year in which Zetterberg has
consistently had the same line-mates. Although, he has been paired
with Todd Bertuzzi often, the big winger was struggling to put the
puck in the net at the time.
Bertuzzi’s
missing scoring touch and the lack of continuity with line-mates
wasn’t really affecting Henrik’s ability to make great passes,
though. He had 22
assists in 34 games prior to missing time with the shoulder injury.
Still
recovering from that ailment, and with several key players still out
of the line-up, it’s going to be a tough challenge for Zetterberg to
break his scoreless streak tonight in New York.
Hank has only 1 goal and 1 assist and is a -6 in 5 career games
versus the Islanders. That is the fewest points total and worst
(plus/minus) for Z against any team in the NHL.
Despite
the current situation, with 38 games remaining, Zetterberg could
still get hot and score over 30 goals and 40 assists in 74 games
this season.
Henrik Zetterberg and Dan Cleary are
back
By Helen St. James,
Free Press, January 7th, 2010
ANAHEIM, Calif. -- For
the first time in weeks, the Red Wings will have two legitimate
scoring lines available as they continue their fight for points with
a game tonight against the surprisingly good
Kings.
Forwards Henrik
Zetterberg and Dan Cleary both said they were good to go after
Wednesday's practice at the Honda Center. Zetterberg hasn't played
since hurting a shoulder Dec. 17 and Cleary since suffering a
similar injury Dec. 9. Given that both need time to get their legs
going, coach Mike Babcock plans to have Zetterberg skate on the wing
with familiar linemates Pavel Datsyuk and Tomas Holmstrom, while
Cleary will be with Valtteri Filppula and Todd
Bertuzzi.
"Being back with Pav
and Tommy, they're two guys I've been playing most
games in this uniform, so of course it will help a little
bit," Zetterberg said. "I'm going to do my best to do everything
tomorrow."
Both probably could
stand more recuperative time, but (not) with the Wings five points
out of the playoffs.
Though Zetterberg's
effectiveness might be limited for a few games, his availability has
made it possible to reunite the most effective line the Wings have
had for several years running.
"It's going to help us
to get some guys back that have been a big part of our team in the
past," defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom said.
Red Wings' Henrik Zetterberg Getting Closer to
Returning
By Ansar Khan,
Mlive.com, January 04, 2010
Detroit Red Wings
forwards Henrik Zetterberg, out with a separated shoulder, ...said
he hasn't ruled out playing Tuesday in Anaheim, but Thursday might
be more realistic.
"We'll see after the morning skate (Tuesday).
Got to have a regroup with the medical staff and see how I feel,''
Zetterberg said after Monday's practice at Jobing.com Arena. "Get a
few stingers here and there in practice, got to see how it reacts to
that.”
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