Well, after seeing what happened during the Tigers/Yankees game yesterday, at least if Lids hangs up the skates we know he can throw on the ball glove and play closer.
Seriously though, it's tough in a way to have all this summer-y stuff going on with no Red Wings playoffs news to report on. It's been a long time since we've seen the Wings on vacation this early, and I don't like it. Yet even as I say that I know that this is, in a weird sense, good for Detroit. The Red Wings have spent a lot of the gas in their tanks over the last four seasons: Conference Finals, two Finals, then 2 rounds deep this season. The extra rest will do wonders for the boys and I'll be excited this fall to see a more refreshed Red Wings squad than I've seen in some time.
Until then we have to do something we've rarely had to do: find a way to get the hell through May! It's only been about a week since Detroit was eliminated and I'm bored out of my tree!! Granted, we do have a couple of points to talk/write/blog/tweet about in Lidstrom's potential retirement and Yzerman's potential migration to GM another team, but in the offseason there is usually no such thing as 'good' news for a team like Detroit. News is usually going to mean someone is leaving or something bad is on the horizon. The only bright light of this summer (and some will argue whether it's bright or not) is the return of Jiri Hudler to the lineup for next season. I'm going to give my personal thoughts on all three matters since we have little concrete facts for most of this:
On Lidstrom: Retire? No way, not with the skill he's shown he still has. Yes, he was not nominated for the Li-I mean Norris trophy, but no one can argue his stats across an injury-plagued season for the Wings. He'll by no means try to pull a Chris Chelios, but I'll be damned if he doesn't have a couple more years of good hockey in him. Even if over the next year or so Babcock can cut his minutes to ease his workload unless needed, we get a spot opened up on the top pairing to give a younger D-Man some great ice-time and experience, and we have the best 3rd defenseman in the NHL.
On Yzerman: Ohh, this topic hurts me, hurts me bad. I want to say I'd be happy to see Steve get his own team to manage, but knowing that it wouldn't be Detroit, the selfish Wingnut in me wants it to not happen. already there were reports yesterday and this morning of Yzerman shooting down Tampa Bay's request for a GM position, but there is still whispers of a team like Calgary knocking on his door and popping the same question. I believe that Steve is capable of the job, for sure. I just feel like it would tear at me inside to see him affiliated with another team, the same way I hated seeing Scotty Bowman leave Detroit: Scotty was the coach when I started following Wings hockey, so even though I knew he worked elsewhere before, I never wanted to see him go anywhere else after.
On Hudler: I'm still waiting for the bleeding to stop from the knife wound of Hudler dragging us through this KHL nonsense in the first place, so I'm a little bitter about him; however, I can't deny that the boy has the ability to produce points: points we sorely could have used last season, but I digress. Mainly it all comes down to one thing: I'm not going on one side of the fence or the other with Hudler till he's back in uniform and playing. I will be watching him like a hawk and he better produce enough to make him worth what he's owed from the arbitration hearing. The KHL is nowhere near the caliber of the NHL, and if Huddles' performance nosedives upon his return, I would suggest shopping him before other unsuspecting teams realize it.
Hopefully there will be some updates on some of these topics in the coming days. I'm confident, but I'm still hoping hard that those updates will be good news. I won't stand for a boring AND depressing offseason!!
