NBA, recent rumors, trades and talks

Today it seems like pretty normal day I wake up, have the day off of work. Go online to check what has been happening while I have been sleeping.

To my surprise of the NBA currently biggest men in basketball has been trades to the team that probably needs him the most. Thats right I am talking about The Real Shaq(Shaquille O'Neal) and the Cleveland Cavilers. This will most likely go down as the biggest move in this off season. But was it really was the Cavs needed?

The Trade
Mr O'Neal was traded early today for Former Pistons defensive player of the year Ben Wallace and Sasha Pavlovic 500k in cash and a second round pick in this years not very deep draft.

The trade no doubt has more way more potiental for the Cavs. After a dissappointing Conference final lose to the Magic, something on the team had to change. Like always some fans call for a coaching change. Even though I am not a fan of the coach of the year Mike Brown, he was the coach of the year and had crazy bad match up problems versus the Magic. But all in all I am glad that the GM for the Cavs knows the he cannot go into the next season just expecting a different outcome with the same players, Espically with the lakers assumingly keeping almost the same line up.

Shaq
Anyone who knows anything about the NBA should know of Mr. Shaquille O'Neal and goofy shenanigans. But is this the same shaq that won all those championships with the lakers and heat? I saw no, Shaq was an amazing player and his imact on the floor is definatly felt weither he is the same shaq or not. But one of the biggest knocks on Shaq his whole carrer has been his ability to defend the pick and roll. He gets exploited espically against very quick gaurds. And for everyone who didn't watch the NBA playoffs this year. Almost every other play in the eastern conference finals was set up byt the pick and roll.
Stats In the past three years Shaq has played 40, 61 and 75 regular season games averaging about 29 minutes per game.(out of 82 regular season games and 48 minutes)
Shaq also has been averaging 15.5 points per game with a very low average on free throws.

So far all I have read about this trade has been praising the Cleveland GM for this move. But Sadly I do not believe this will help the Cavs in the long run

Things to watch for...

• I would look for Shaq to not play very many regular season games,( about 50ish)
• Look to see how many touches shaq is getting per game.
• Look to see if Shaq has any athleticism lef tin him at all.

Don't believe everything you hear in the media I don't think this means much for the Cavs.

Game 6 Recap

I did not get enough time today to post my Game 6 keys for the wings but here they are. Honestly I had these written before the game.

Red Wings Keys to winning:

The pens are going to be tough with their checks and fore checking. Passes need to be on the mark.

Stuart, kronwall are great defenders but when the make a check or attempted passes and get out of position. This cannot happen. The pens have proven that they can score effectively on the odd man rush.

Score first and fast. Both goaltenders are pumped for this game, ozzie because it can win him a cup (and if the series finished tonight, i believe a con smythe as well) and Fleury coming back off of a very embarassing game 5. This will be a low scoring game.


I thought the wings did pretty poorly on all levels. What I wanna know is, where is the hossa I saw in game 5. The hossa that was unselfish willing to give it up to a teammate instead of taking it all the way in. The hossa that was quite possibly the most physical player in that game. But as the wings have proven game after game, 1 player is not going to win it all for you.

As for officiating, I thought the game was very 1 sided till the last 10 min or so. I thought there were several interferences calls that should have been called against the Penguins that were not called. Other than that, both teams had their oppertunities.

Effective lines: It was pretty obvious that any line with Datsyuk was the line to watch out there. Datsyuk did look a lot better on his skates and made a lot of key passes that could have very well gone in the net on different circumstances.

Hats off to Scuderi the new pens goaltender for preventing 3 shots that would have went in. Personally I knwo i was yelling at the TV for a Penelty call. The normal TV angle appered as though he covered it with his glove.


I might be adding to this later, its getting late here and I have to get up for work.

Future thoughts and Taking Age into consideration

The Future Red Wings

The Detroit Red Wings are currently leading the Stanley Cup finals against the Pittsburgh Penguins three games to two games. But I’m sure front office executives and certainly the GM Ken Holland has already started looking forward to the future of the Franchise. I was certainly stunned when I took a look at what the GM has done for the wings in long team deals of star players. Hank is signed a 12 year 73 million dollar deal this January which would put him with the wings through the 2021 season. Franzen also have a very very long deal to be with us until the 2020 season and Datsyuk will be with us until at least the 2014 season.

Looking toward next year specifically the Wings look like they are in excellent shape baring some type of trade that would dramatically shake up the team. If they were currently just to stick to their current roster they would have everyone coming back from this Stanley Cup Final run. The only real large decision I see that seems feasible for Mr. Holland to make would be to see what is out their goal tending wise. Marian Hossa is a great player and has not been effective in the point and goals column for the Wings this playoffs. The big question is, should Ken Holland go shopping with Hossa’s name tag out there looking for a goaltender in this off season?

Bonus: This is a stat that I looked up for myself and is accurate I will post my links at the bottom in case you decide to double check me.

Six of the Wings that have been consistently in the playoffs line up for the Wings are over the age of thirty. Draper is one of these and it sure looks like it from the tube that he is one of the fastest players on the ice. Lidstrom and Rafalski are also included in this stat as well and you can tell me but if there are any 2 current defense men in the league that are more calm under pressure I would really like to know.
Wings not included in this stat. Cleary, Datsyuk, Hossa and Franzen are all not included in this
stat. Datsyuk and Hossa are both currently 30 years of, Cleary is 29 and Franzen is 28. I believe that at one point or another in the playoffs one can make an argument that any of the players I listed above are the best player on the wings team. So why does everyone always say the wings are an old team?

Mike Babcock said something along the lines of, well I will give ya chilly, heck hes older than me. Other than a select few players I believe that we aren’t that old.
I would have to agree with him.

Please send me comments about what you think about my articles, email address is posted above.

Link I used for stats:
http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/teams/det/stats?sort=14&year=postseason_2008
http://salaries.hockeyanalysis.com/teams/pittsburgh.php
http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/teams/pit/stats?sort=14&year=postseason_2008
http://letsgowings.com/salarychart/#

Game 5 Recap

http://www.mlive.com/forums/redwings/index.ssf
I check this regularly, it is nice to see what the fans think.

First I Wanted to touch on my, keys to victory and see what each team was doing wrong or failed to do.

"Keys to winning: Red Wings

1. In this series Hossa is the Red wings X factor. If he plays well I believe that the wings win the game.
2. The wings first and second line. In order for them to win they will need more production out of these lines.
3. It all starts with the fore checking, They need 1-2 players fore checking hard to make the pens turn the puck over in the neutral zone.
   

Keys to winning: Penguins

1. In the past 2 games the production that they have gotten out of Malkin has been astounding. If they want to win he should be on the ice just as much as Crosby.
2. Keep up the fore checking. The Red wings turned the puck over way to many times and that lead to t least 3 goals last game. This was all a result of very strong fore checking by the Penguins.
3. Fleury. He needs to be on his game and remember that he is back in the Joe with "spring boards". He needs to not give up weak goals and put his team in a hole.

"
Since the Wings won the game I am going to focus on them first. First off I thought hossa played the best game of his series tonight, almost having a goal fed from datsyuk. I thought that he was a very unselfish player handling the puck only when he needed to.

By the first and Second I mean Zetterburg, Datsyuk and Cleary. And the Second line I consider Hossa, Filppula(flip-u-la, as I like to call him) and franzen/holmstrom. I probably should have clarified that before and for that I appologize. But the Wings these lines did step up dramatically
and was for sure the difference maker in this game. I think the whole world now sees how much the wings miss their other assistant captain.

I believe this was the biggest key to the wings victory out of everything. I really did like Coach Babcocks decision to put 2 of his fastest most physical guys on the same line. They would be Helm and Draper. They started with the physical fore checking and it continued like a tuning fork throughout the second period where the wings absolutly demolished the penguins. Look for this to be a very large key for both teams in game 6.

As for the pens. They are a very young team that is not quite yet disciplined for the long haul. It became very obvious to me that they could not handle and are certainly not used to getting blown out. But as a player and team as a whole they just need to humble themselves and remember theat they are going up against the former stanley cup champs and one of the best teams in the league and certainly remember that there is one more final game to play.

as a poster on mlive pointed out

"and other teams. game 3 vs the hawks, wings got down by 3, what did they do? they didnt goon it up, they played their game and got back into it and gave them a chance to win. Game 4 vs the hawks, wings get up by 3, hawks goon it up and get blownout.

Game 5 vs the Pens, Pens get down by 3, start to goon it up. get blown out."

This was posted by truthhurts67 on the Red wings forum on Mlive.com

I believe the comparison is very similar between the blackhawks and wings series to the one currently going on. Some people like to say that a true team shows its colors under pressure. In this case I thought it was very apparent that this team was headed by very young leadership.(Crosby, Malkin)

Favorite stat of the game: Zetterburg 6 shots, Malkin 6 Penalty minutes.

oh and p.s. did anyone else notice that the wings were putting 4 forwards and kronwall out there on the PP? I believe samuelsson was playing the point with kronwall.

Good luck next game Penguins but I think this series is over in 6!

NHL playoffs

Personally here I am a Red wings fan and have been since I have taken my first breath of air in this world.

Ok well enough about the past what matters is right here right now. Am I right? And right now the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Detroit Red Wings are evenly tied at 2 games a piece going into game 5 of the Stanley cup finals.

Games 1 and 2 were played on back to back days at Saturday and Sunday of the past week. Fortunately I had the opportunity to be at the game 2 and witnessed first hand what it is like to sit in a $230 chair in the upper bowl of Joe Louis Arena. From what I did see about games 1 and 2 the series seemed very very even. I did watch almost all of the coverage on espn and nbc about the series, I did not see any analyst pick the wings over the pens. This suprised me greatly because from the line changes that happened at joe louis, it became very apparent to me that hank (henrick Zetterberg aka hank and Z) was going to be on the ice every time that Sidney Crosby took a step on the ice. And that 90% of the time he was going to be going up against the likes of Lidstrom and Rafi ( aka Brian Rafalski). Since Sid the kid has been going up against this pair of defense men and Z he hasn't had as many oppertunities as he has in the previous serieses.

This just of course means what has already happened. The pens are very good at adapting to the other team, like all great teams do. The other players on the Penguins that Crosby is not going to be as effective as he has been in the previous series vs the Hurricanes. Seeing this they have all collectivly stepped up their play dramatically. And being a Red Wings fan I am very concerned after game 4. The Penguins absolutly blew the Red Wings out of the water, Bad. I really don't see this happening but if the play of the penguins continues I believe that the Red Wings are in for a lot of trouble.

But on the other hand, this is a different night and a different game. I was just informed that the Red Wings "best player", Pavel Datsuyk is going to be returning to the line up tonight.

Officiating: From what I have seen in the games I think the officiating has been absolutely horrible. It seems like the officials are trying to be fair by giving both teams the same amount of power plays, but I am sorry that is not the way that the NHL works and never has. I don't get why it is changing in the Stanley cup finals.

I can think of a few individual times for both teams where they have been cheated out of penalties. Numerous times watch as Hal Gill will interfere with forwards dumping the puck into the pens zone. The same call was made on Ericcson earlier in the series. And there is the one call in a crutical moment, the dreaded 6 men on the ice that became very clear to the announcers of versus and not the referees.

Yeah its the stanley cup finals and you probably should just let them play, but I think if a referee sees a penalty he should just call it and if that throws off the balance of "even" power plays then so be it. I wouldn't want it any other way, even if the wings were on the short end.

Keys to winning: Red Wings

1. In this series Hossa is the Red wings X factor. If he plays well I believe that the wings win the game.
2. The wings first and second line. In order for them to win they will need more production out of these lines.
3. It all starts with the fore checking, They need 1-2 players fore checking hard to make the pens turn the puck over in the neutral zone.
   

Keys to winning: Penguins

1. In the past 2 games the production that they have gotten out of Malkin has been astounding. If they want to win he should be on the ice just as much as Crosby.
2. Keep up the fore checking. The Red wings turned the puck over way to many times and that lead to t least 3 goals last game. This was all a result of very strong fore checking by the Penguins.
3. Fleury. He needs to be on his game and remember that he is back in the Joe with "spring boards". He needs to not give up weak goals and put his team in a hole.
   

I really hope this is a good game and series. Subscribe to my blog if you liked this. I talk about everything in life from the perspective of a 20 year old college student.

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GO WINGS!!!