Brendan Witt hit by car; will still play tonights game
New York Islanders defenceman Brendan Witt was hit by a car in Philadelphia on Tuesday, according to Newsday. But Witt reportedly picked himself up off the road and, after a few profanities, assured everyone he was all right before continuing on his way, prompting one witness to say, “it was like seeing Clint Eastwood, but in hockey.”
That’s pretty bad ass.
Hockey players > everyone else. See also.
this is the problem with ‘enforcers’ today. you are supposed to square up and fight ‘tough guy’.
The place settings are arranged at the home of Kris Draper, and they are bountiful.
In addition to Draper, his wife and their three children, invitations for Thanksgiving dinner today were extended to Red Wings teammates Todd Bertuzzi and his family, Dan Cleary and his family, rookies Darren Helm and Justin Abdelkader, and relative newcomer Patrick Eaves.
“We’ve got a pretty good table set,” Draper said, smiling. “Helmer and Abby are going to sit with my two oldest kids, Kennedi and Kienan, and Bert’s two kids. … We enjoy having some of the guys over and then just watching football and just hanging out and enjoying the day. It’s nice to be able to open up our house to them.”
Draper said he carves the turkey and makes mashed potatoes, which makes him far more active than goalie Jimmy Howard.
“I get up from bed,” he said, “and go from the couch to the table to back to the couch.”
Howard is one of just four Americans on the team, but nationality hasn’t stopped the Wings as a whole from celebrating the annual feast.
“You go through the amount of Americans we have on our team, and it’s not many, and yet I think it’s a great tradition because you get to eat too much and lay on the couch and watch football,” Mike Babcock said. “So that’s a good thing.”
With his wife and youngest kid out of town, Babcock — who said there’d be no practice today — plans to put up Christmas lights with his two oldest kids because “we’re the only one in our neighborhood who hasn’t done it.”
Chris Osgood will be at his in-laws, “watching football and eating. I love gravy and potatoes, that’s my favorite.”
Johan Franzen plans to cook a turkey for the first time, with or without the help of Niklas Kronwall. The two former roommates have recently been united by knee injuries.
“It’s five weeks now, and there’s like 12 to go,” Franzen said. “But I’ve got company now in Kronner, my roommate’s back, so, we’re riding down together and we’re on the same schedule to return.”
Swedish, American or Canadian, the Wings enjoy this day — regardless of where they’re seated.
“Maybe there’s a section in between kids and adults where I can sit,” Helm said, laughing. “You know, it’s really nice, especially for guys that don’t live around here, that we have a place to go and eat good food. … It’s nice to be a part of that, and that’s what this team is really all about, being a family.”
I love this team so much.
Agreed. So awesome in every way.
Number 1; Nicklas Lidstrom
When asked for our all-decade team during the summer, we wrote the following about the Detroit Red Wings defenseman:
“When you’ve won so many Norris Trophies than you can play a game of Jenga with them, I’d say that warrants inclusion on this list.”
Lidstrom’s six Norris Trophies for best defenseman aren’t an NHL record: Doug Harvey has seven and Bobby Orr has eight. But those players competed in a slightly smaller League, and Lidstrom’s remained king of the mountain despite challenges from some stellar, Hall of Fame-potential defenseman, two of whom are on this list.
Simply put, he was the total package. An offensive player who tallied 574 points, his four best point-scoring seasons all coming in the 2000s. A defensive player who was a plus-232 for the decade, frequently logging more than 28 minutes a night for the Wings. A leader who won the Conn Smythe for the Wings’ 2001-02 Stanley Cup champions, and who then captained a second Detroit team to the Cup in 2007-08. And he made it look frequently effortless.
We previously broke down the Lidstrom/Brodeur dynamic when The Sporting News named the defenseman as its player of the decade, a decision we obviously endorse. Looking back at our ranking here, what we said then still stands in the final analysis:
The best two players of the last 10 years were a defenseman and a goaltender, and that speaks volumes about which positions are underappreciated in the NHL, as well as the marketing challenges the League’s faced in selling guys who keep pucks out of, rather than put them into, the net.
Brodeur and Lidstrom never received the marketing push of a Crosby or an Ovechkin; they’ll have to just settle on being legendary performers at their given positions in the NHL.
-The 10 best NHL players of the last decade
October 07, 2009, 1:11PM
DETROIT — Thursday’s game against Chicago will be the first time Red Wings captain Nicklas Lidstrom will face Patrick Sharp since the Blackhawks forward speared him in the testicles in Game 3 of the Western Conference finals.
But Lidstrom harbors no ill will. He was impressed that Sharp called him to apologize after the Stanley Cup finals.
“I thought it was a real classy thing to do,” Lidstrom said. “It was an accident. He wasn’t even aware what happened.’’
There was no penalty on the play. Lidstrom practiced the next day but had surgery two days later and sat out Games 4 and 5 — the first playoff games he has missed in his career. He returned for Game 1 of the finals vs. Pittsburgh.
Nicklas Lidstrom is classy as fuck.
(via nervegas)
OH HEY. FAVORITE ROSBY PHOTO EVER.
i wish that there were some sort of accountability for clearly blown calls on goals, not necessarily on penalties, but definately on goals. it is amazing that, even with instant replay, calls can be blown that blatantly.
This is the greatest goal celebration that I ever did see.
(via Puck Daddy)
The goal itself deserves mad props as well.
