In Red Wings Land

Why Thomas Vanek’s value matters to the Detroit Red Wings - Freep

Helene says it’s unlikely Vanek gets moved in an article extolling his virtues during his hot streak. It still reads like sales copy, but whatever.

Around the Atlantic: The Detroit Red Wings should only have moral victories this season - Raw Charge

I was interviewed for this article and had a lot of fun with it.

BONUS - Food for thought:

A lot of the Twitter responses were about 2009 and I get that because it’s recent and real tough, but it’s also a whippersnapper’s answer because I was a whippersnapper in the mid-90s and will tell you very few things affected my outlook on the universe like watching the Red Wings forced to shake that guy’s friggin’ hand in 1996...

Around the League

Craig Anderson says it’s time for the NHL to crackdown on crease crashing - The Ottawa Sun

I was all set to dismiss this as whining and talk about how there’s already a crease but I have to admit I kind of like this idea:

“Make the crease six inches smaller and if a guy goes in the crease then blow it down,” Anderson said. “You won’t have guys running into the goalie. Tuukka Rask is out with a concussion right now because a guy went to the net. I missed time because a guy went to the net hard.

[Site Programming Note: The Weekly Red Wings Powerplay Update that you’re used to seeing on Wednesday is going to be delayed by a day so Peter can include last night’s game in the numbers because it doesn’t make sense to wait two weeks for that game to count.]