Every day from Monday to Saturday, The Ice Sheet will take a look at the biggest stories in the league that happened on the ice and elsewhere the night before.With a 4-1 win over the Dallas Stars last night, the Detroit Red Wings upped their record to an amazing 30-8-3, nine points better than the Ottawa Senators, their Eastern Conference counterparts.
People keep waiting for the Red Wings to slip and have an off-year, but it never seems to happen. The Wings just continue to get stronger, utilize smart free agent signings, and rule just about every facet of the game. Just look at how the Wings dominate.
Goals For - 145 (1st)
Goals Against - 89 (1st)
Power Play - 23.4% (2nd)
Penalty Kill - 86.2% (3rd)
Face-offs - 54.4% (1st)
Save Percentage - 91.0% (11th)
So, apart from Dominik Hasek's extremely shaky goaltending and shredded groin, the Wings are near the top of the league in every category that matters. Give credit to coach Mike Babcock for getting the most out of his roster, which has been dominating the Western Conference, and could sleepwalk to a President's Trophy at this point.
With such safe leads in their respective conferences, it was easy for the league to announce that Mike Babcock and John Paddock (Senators) will be the Head Coaches for their respective conferences at the All-Star Game.
Now, Babcock has some semblance of a personality, but Paddock? Is he capable of smiling, or he is going to treat this All-Star game like Game Seven of the Stanley Cup Finals? I'd think of a drinking game involving Paddock and frowning, but I don't want AOL sued for causing alcohol poisoning.
Weren't the Calgary Flames supposed to crash and burn under the coaching of Iron Mike Keenan? (Yes, Jes, you said so many frickin' times!). *ahem* Well, the Flames are also rolling with a 10-1-4 record in the past 15 games, capping that nice streak with a 4-3 win over the Rangers last night.
During that time, Iginla has 16(!) goals and Kristian Huselius continues to play with the confidence he found after his trade from Florida.
Yes, Huselius ... I certainly have some egg on my face after predicting he and Keenan would be at each other's throats, but whoda thunk these two would get along after what happened between them in Florida? Keenan practically treated Huselius like a leper.
Well, Huselius has 43 points in 41 games after a four-point effort last night, improving on his impressive totals from last season. Perhaps Keenan finally understood that he had a talented player and couldn't screw this one up? Perhaps GM Sutter told Keenan to give Huselius a little credit? I'm quite puzzled ...
"Kristian's skill level really surfaced at an opportune time for us tonight," Flames coach Mike Keenan said. "He was quick in finding holes and he has always had a quick stick. Its an interesting display when you see top skilled guys play with that kind of confidence."
Yes, confidence, the very thing Keenan ripped out of Huselius during their time together in Florida.
It's not often that a team honors an opposing team's player with an award, but that's just what the Red Wings did as they presented an award to Dallas Stars forward Mike Modano before the aforementioned Stars-Wings game last night.
Back when Modano was just a little tyke, and the most popular boy on the playground, he was a prolific young scorer in the Little Caesars hockey program, which is owned by Wings' owner Mike Ilitch.
"I was pretty surprised and honored at the same time," said Modano, 37. "They've always been a real class organization and Little Caesars has always been good to me throughout my career and my life. But being from Detroit, it was quite a thrill to have them going out of their way like that."
"We started at an early age, probably nine or 10 (years-old) when I got into the Caesars organization," Modano said after the Stars' morning skate on Wednesday. "There were some memorable years where you were developing and I still do a lot of the things or use a lot of the skills that they taught at that age."
No word on if the award came with free bread sticks.
Gratuitous YouTube Embed: Over at the World Junior Championships, Robin Figren of Sweden shows off with the Zorro-like wraparound goal.
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