Do You Believe in Milestones?

by Amerinadian on Aug 15, 2011 10:30 AM CDT in Analysis/Reaction

A new hockey season always brings hope; a sense of anticipation that anything is possible. While we as fans sit and wonder whether our hockey heroes are going to deliver us to euphoria at some point in June, we can't disregard the 7 months of regular season action that, while may seem meaningless, deliver some historic moments.

With that in mind, we thought it would be fun to look at some of the key milestones some of the Wings are gunning for this year. Truth be told, there are not many of them, but these are stats that players hold dear, and as we saw with Dan Cleary and Johan Franzen in their pursuit of their 100th, the players can put a lot of pressure on themselves to reach a milestone within their reach, but once they do, relief sets in and they can get back to just playing their game.

There won't be a Wing milestone met this year as big or historic as Chris Osgood getting to 400 wins, but some Wings will have some celebrating to do if all goes well. Follow the jump as we take a look at what some of the "clubs" certain Wing players are trying to join.

For research purposes, all player stats were derived from Hockey Reference, which is an amazing site if you ever need to look up some stats. The following is a list of Wing players within reasonable distance of a milestone.

Goals
Todd Bertuzzi - 11 goals from 300
Tomas Holmstrom - 18 goals from 250
Henrik Zetterberg - 20 goals from 250
Pavel Datsyuk - 29 goals from 250

Points
Pavel Datsyuk - 49 points from 700
Henrik Zetterberg - 45 points from 600
Brad Stuart - 16 points from 300

Games Played
Nicklas Lidstrom - 6 GP from 1500
Tomas Holmstrom - 48 GP from 1000
Dan Cleary - 54 GP from 800
Brad Stuart - 5 GP from 800
Pavel Datsyuk - 38 GP from 700
Henrik Zetterberg - 14 GP from 600
Johan Franzen - 5 GP from 400
Valtteri Filppula - 39 GP from 400
Niklas Kronwall - 15 GP from 400

Wins
Jimmy Howard - 25 wins from 100
Ty Conklin - 9 wins from 100

As one can see, there are a lot of players who are working towards some significant number. However, the one I'm really pulling for is Tomas Holmstrom in his bid to become only the 6th player in Red Wing history to play 1000 games in the Winged Wheel. It's a testament to how truly strong and tough he is, because very few people in any sport would be able to withstand the kind of abuse that he takes on a nightly basis and last for 500 games, let alone 1000.

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Comments

One thousand games for Holmstrom would be flat amazing.

They should get Scottie Bowman to autograph a plague that has his quote to Homer about being out of the league in 96 and give that to Homer as a gift for hitting #1000.

by J.J. from Kansas on Aug 15, 2011 10:39 AM CDT reply actions 4 recs

rec'd

Bingo

Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others.
-Groucho Marx

by Jebus El-Daboo on Aug 15, 2011 10:41 AM CDT up reply actions

Monday morning dumbfingers

Autographing a plague would be difficult.

I propose we have him autograph a plaque instead. [facepalm]

by J.J. from Kansas on Aug 15, 2011 10:45 AM CDT up reply actions

heheh i didn't even notice that mistake the first time

You wanna tell me that to mah face?!

by uvgt2bkdnme on Aug 15, 2011 11:09 AM CDT up reply actions

Still deserves a rec though

by celldweller on Aug 15, 2011 1:49 PM CDT up reply actions

Homer at 1000 and Nick at 1500, all in Red Wings jerseys mind you, is one hell of an accomplishment both for them and for the team.

Also… Tiberius is 16 wins behind Conklin despite being 8 years younger. Interesting. (not really, but still cool to know)

by Apocalyptic0n3 on Aug 15, 2011 10:42 AM CDT reply actions

(Potentially not so) Bold prediction re: milestones:

All of these listed above, with the exception of Homer’s goals, will be met this year. I want this going on my permanent record for the bold predictions post that will surely come at some point before the season.

Datsyuk and Friends

by Dubie on Aug 15, 2011 10:57 AM CDT reply actions

Fair enough

but you’re going to have to remember it. We’re still several (too damn many) weeks away from bold predictions and I"m having trouble keeping straight all the D-men in the league I’ve said will play worse than Ericsson.

by J.J. from Kansas on Aug 15, 2011 11:03 AM CDT up reply actions

hahahaha

I will definitely remember my (somewhat) bold prediction. And yes, I can’t believe how far off we still are from hockey. Can’t come soon enough. But I’m also not going to wish this nice weather away. Dilemmas…

Datsyuk and Friends

by Dubie on Aug 15, 2011 11:06 AM CDT up reply actions

Which happens first

Homer reaches 1000 games or the distance of his goals (measured from stick to net) reaches 1000 feet?

Winging It In Motown

by Amerinadian on Aug 15, 2011 11:02 AM CDT reply actions 1 recs

Games played, I think. He’s only up to about 56 feet total in goals scored.

by Apocalyptic0n3 on Aug 15, 2011 11:13 AM CDT up reply actions

Don’t forget to mention that 50 feet came from a slap shot last year vs Bryz in the playoffs.

by krett on Aug 15, 2011 1:39 PM CDT via mobile up reply actions

Actually

It looks like Homer would be the 6th player to record 1000 games in a Red Wings uniform, Draper being the 5th. (I assume no one has trouble naming the other 4.)

by stevenyc on Aug 15, 2011 1:05 PM CDT reply actions

Jiri Slegr
Jason Williams
Mo Cheese
Cameron Frye

Am I close?

by J.J. from Kansas on Aug 15, 2011 1:08 PM CDT up reply actions

Your forgot Perry Cox.

by Apocalyptic0n3 on Aug 15, 2011 1:27 PM CDT up reply actions

and Ole-Kristian Tollefsen

You wanna tell me that to mah face?!

by uvgt2bkdnme on Aug 15, 2011 2:08 PM CDT up reply actions

I could swear Steve Thomas and Darryl Bootland would be on there.

I hate Jonathon Ericsson.

by Brion on Aug 15, 2011 2:33 PM CDT up reply actions

Derp

Not enough coffee when I wrote that. Thanks for the correction. I’ll be over here projecting point totals for Lindstrom and Fillapulla.

Winging It In Motown

by Amerinadian on Aug 15, 2011 5:24 PM CDT up reply actions

I’m pretty sure the entity known as “Mebdeech” is in that top 4 somewhere…

by Lauren H on Aug 15, 2011 1:40 PM CDT reply actions

So...

Who gets to 250 goals first? Z or Dats? Might there be a friendly bit of competition this year?

by Big Z in Orlando on Aug 15, 2011 4:58 PM CDT reply actions

I think it would be awesome for them both to get to 250 in the same game. The Euro Twins strike again!

by SlapshotGoal on Aug 16, 2011 8:50 AM CDT up reply actions

What would really be funny

is if they are both sitting at 249, they’re on the ice together heading into offensive zone with the puck on Z’s stick and he’s going in for the score, Dats steals it from him and scores the goal. But, of course, you would never see Dats doing that to a teammate. He would rather be the one creating the distraction to let Z score.

by zfan16 on Aug 16, 2011 11:13 AM CDT up reply actions