June-August 2011
Each Team's Untouchable Player
By Tom Schreier, Bleacherreport.com, August 7, 2011
The Red Wings are a veteran franchise that likes to keep its players in the Motor City.
Nick Lidstrom, Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk are the three-headed monster of the Wings. They have been around forever and aren’t going anywhere.
After Kris Draper's Exit, Red Wings Belong to Henrik Zetterberg.
By Craig Custance, Sportingnews.com, July 26th, 2011
In the midst of an emotional opening statement during the press conference announcing his retirement, Kris Draper found a moment for levity. As a member of the Detroit Red Wings organization since being acquired for $1 in 1993, Draper had earned the best spot in the team parking lot.
“I know Henrik Zetterberg wants it,” Draper said, joking.
Zetterberg might deserve it, because his role just got a little more demanding. In the last week, Detroit has lost Chris Osgood and Draper, who defined the culture of the Red Wings, to retirement. Last year, as the distance started to form from the great Detroit teams of the 1990, it was Chris Chelios and Kirk Maltby calling it quits.
Now, for the first time in their careers, the Red Wings are unquestionably Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk’s team. With Nicklas Lidstrom likely joining Osgood and Draper in retirement after the 2011-12 season, it’s now on Zetterberg, Datsyuk and others to continue the legacy passed down from Steve Yzerman, Draper, Maltby, Osgood and Chelios.
In the dressing room, Zetterberg, Datsyuk and Niklas Kronwall will now be expected to take a more active role in leadership.
“It’s their time,” Holland said. “There’s people in there who have it in them but they didn’t have to do it. Kris was the conscience of the Red Wings. I also believe there are other players out there up to the challenge.”
Weekly Hate: Zetterberg the Malcontent
By J.J. from Kansas, Wingingitinmotown.com, July 12th, 2011
There's a different kind of suck and it's one that has infiltrated our very organization to the core. This bad apple is already spoiling the bunch and I think I can safely say without resorting to hyperbole that every single bad thing that has happened to the Red Wings over the last two seasons has literally been the fault of Henrik Zetterberg.
Unfortunately, we all forgot about that while waiting for the Wings to replace the assistant coaches that he drove off.
Perhaps you forgot this little ditty by our Conn Smythe-winning alternate captain when the Wings were trying to figure out why their home record was so much worse than their road numbers?
Obviously, Babcock has lost the ear of the guy who stepped up his game, finished top-ten for scoring in the league, and backchecks as hard as he forechecks. But, just in case Babcock praising Zetterberg on January 24th while implying that Z helps him run drills in practice and outright saying that Z "thinks like a coach" has you doubting, there's this piece (again from Khan) that followed a collapse against the Phoenix Coyotes that's clear evidence of problems in the locker room and not at all a hint that maybe everybody was a little frustrated.
“There's a way to play to be successful, we know it,'' Babcock said. “But until we get our head around doing it, we're not going anywhere.
“There gets to be a point in your season where you got to decide, if you think you're a championship-caliber team, that there's a right way to play. Unless you get 23 guys doing it the same way and wanting to do it, nothing's going to happen.''
“We've been around enough winning that every guy in this room understands,'' Babcock said. “But obviously I got to do a much better job to get them all to do it, because we're not doing it.''
Henrik Zetterberg, however, thinks the way his team played wouldn't have been an issue had they won.
“It's easy to say we were fancy when we're losing,'' Zetterberg said. “If we're winning the game, we're playing well, we're holding the puck. We shouldn't lose it. It's easy to focus on the negative.''
People took this and ran completely off the deep end with accusations ranging from the mildly annoying (and likely partially true) "Babcock isn't getting through to the players" to the absolutely insane "Zetterberg has become a locker room cancer." But, that was March. After that, the Wings played a bit better and worked themselves into a playoff run that, by its end, caused a bit of "Babcock has to go" but very little "Zetterberg is the problem". That is, until this week when the Wings filled both of their vacant assistant coaching positions and Babs told our diggers exactly what the crazies wanted to hear.
"I’ve been in Detroit six years and after a while you start to sound like Charlie Brown’s teacher—womp, womp, womp!" Babcock said. "I’m looking for new ideas, new thoughts. We’re trying to evolve our game. The way to do that is change. (Players) have heard the same voice for a long time."
Khan doesn't tell you about it (because he's no doubt in on it), but what you can't hear is the amount of fear and resignation in Babcock's voice. But what does our usually stone-faced head coach have to fear, you say?
HENRIK. ZETTERBERG.
Well I just want to go on record and say THEY'RE ABSOLUTELY FRIGGIN' RIGHT. I mean, what's the more likely answer here? Zetterberg is obviously a big problem. What's worse though is that he's too expensive to trade away (even though we should totally do that because he's lost a step). The management obviously doesn't have the guts to get rid of a franchise player because of attitude problems. THE TEAM'S HISTORY IS EVIDENCE OF THIS VERY FACT. They obviously don't want us in on this, so that's why one of the practice squads at the Traverse City prospects camp going on right now is named after him. It's all a big smokescreen to try to appease the biggest ego in the room. We all know that NHL franchises are excellent at hiding locker room strife from the media. Just ask the Calgary Flames and Philadelphia Flyers. Nobody ever had any clue there were problems there.
I heard that there are people who say that the simpler solution is just that, as a leader in the Red Wings locker room, the management simply trusts him enough to where he's comfortable being able to speak his mind like an adult. Well let me tell you that YOU ARE WRONG. Since when has a "simple" solution ever been right? That myth was discredited YEARS AGO and all you're doing is embarrassing yourself. That guy Occam wasn't even a real scientists, he sold shaving supplies or something. Also, and uh... hello
HE WAS SO CRAZY THAT THEY NAMED A MENTAL INSTITUTION IN GOTHAM CITY AFTER HIM. LOOK IT UP. YOU'RE SO DUMB.
But shut up, let me finish. It's obvious that there's this super-serious tension building where Babcock is all trying to talk and whatnot and Zetterberg is just sitting there rolling his eyes and talking shit about how Babcock never won a Conn Smythe and how he should be the coach. The media and the team have never specifically told us that this is not what's happening so it's painfully obvious that it is. WHY DO YOU DOUBT THIS?
Man, I hate July...
BY THE NUMBERS: Henrik Zetterberg
By Rick Bowness, Redwings.nhl.com, July 11th, 2011
By The Numbers will highlight the Red Wings on-ice accomplishments in the 2010-11 season. Each week during the off-season, By The Numbers will profile a different player on the team, focusing on their statistical highs. This week we focus on forward Henrik Zetterberg.
11 His longest point streak of his season between Dec. 22 and Jan. 10, racking up six goals and 10 assists during a prolific 11-game stretch of action for the superstar playmaker.
20 The amount of multi-point games Zetterberg turned during the regular-season, adding two more in seven playoff appearances.
24 Zetterberg reached the 20-goal plateau for the seventh time in his eight-season career, finding the back of the net two dozen times for the Red Wings.
56 Selflessness was an obsession of Henrik’s in his eighth NHL season as the veteran forward dished out a career-high 56 assists, the fifth-best total in the league.
80 The number of games that he skated in during the 2010-11 campaign, which was a career-high. The 30-year-old offensive dynamo also finished the season with 80 points, marking the third time that he’s averaged at least a point-per-game since entering the league in 2002-03.
306 For the fourth straight season, Zetterberg fired over 300 shots on NHL goalies, finishing with the fifth-highest total in the league at 306.
Henrik Zetterberg’s Lucido Fine Jewelry Commercial
July 11th, 2011
“As a little boy I had two dreams. One was to play hockey, and the other was to be a fighter jet pilot. It turned out that I made a pretty good decision not to become a fighter pilot.”
NHL Power Rankings: Picking the Top 50 Players in the League Next Season
By Matthew Fairburn, Bleacherreport.com, June 15, 2011
Here's a look at my projected top 50 NHL players for the upcoming 2011-2012 season;
Believe it or not, there was a time when Henrik Zetterberg was in the discussion as the best player in the NHL. Of course, the influx of young talent such as Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin has caused him to slide down the list a bit.
However, the former seventh-round draft choice is still one of the league's elite forwards, as evidenced by the fact that he once again finished in the top 10 in scoring with 80 points.
Warrior Chronicles - Henrik Zetterberg and the WIDOW Stick
By HPsSportsShop, Youtube.com, June 3rd, 2011
“I got my first stick when I was two and a half. I didn’t do much skating though.”
“My first big idol was Gretzky. After that was Forsberg and Sundin. Yzerman was, of, course, huge.”
“I’m not big on changing my (equipment). If I am going to change, it’s gotta work right away. I’m not going to try and test it for a long time. If I get a new stick in my hand it better feel right away.”
“Now I shoot a little harder. Most of the time I’ve got Holmstrom in front and it helps me too.”
“I think that less tape on the blade is probably because I’m lazy. When I do my stick it goes really fast. Also, the sand finish on it helps it too when you receive a pass it doesn’t bounce as much.”
“Sticks last really long, especially for me. I always mark my game sticks and I know what game I took that stick, and it can last for months.”
“I have my stuff (superstitions) that I do and I hit the post a few times before I go out on the ice. I think it’s more of just getting yourself ready for the game.”
“Good thing playing for the Wings, we have a lot of fans on the road too.”
“It is a job, but it’s the best job you can have. So I am real excited to go out there and get things started.”
Gretzky wants to be like the Euro Twins
By Jason O. Watson, Foxsportsdetroit.com, June 1st, 2011
Wayne Gretzky is a big fan of the Detroit Red Wings' Euro Twins.
In fact, if he could come back to the game as one of its current stars Gretzky says it would be as either Henrik Zetterberg or Pavel Datsyuk.
"The two guys I love, and you can pick the guy you want, but I love Zetterberg, and I love Datsyuk," Gretzky said in response to the "second coming" question posed by Dan Patrick on his TV/radio show (as seen on FOX Sports Detroit) on Wednesday morning. "I think they play hard, they play properly, they're unselfish, they're winners, and they play the game with a great deal of work ethic.
"I don't care how good you are as an athlete — I really admire the superstars, the talented guys who really work hard and the guys who go every night and push themselves to another level."
