The Kids Table at the TPL Holiday Feast

How does this thing work again???:: After gorging ourselves on the finest food and consuming all of the best top shelf adult beverage offerings, we’ve finally pried ourselves off the leather and cherry-wood couches and are ready to get back to work here at TPL. Apologies for the lack of posting around the St. Louis win earlier this week, but all of us were still in the midst of our long winter’s nap. That said, a big thanks goes out to @stevieroxelle for holding down the fort and kicking ass while Petrella, Disch and myself were busying ourselves with all of the fun and excitement that comes with this time of year. Don’t worry: there will be plenty more of Stevie in the future, so turn those frowns upside down.

The Sak Attack:: With the Wings getting a rare day off, the big news out of our friends at the MSM was the return of Jan Mursak to the Grand Rapids Griffins for a conditioning stint now that his broken ankle has healed. From Khan(!):

Mursak said Tuesday that he expected to play tonight in Lake Erie. He has been out since Sept. 25 with a broken left ankle.

He anticipated playing between 4-6 games with the Griffins but could be brought back to Detroit sooner if the Red Wings have another injury and need him.

While it’s good to see Mursak getting himself in shape to make the jump back up to the Wings, the timing of his return will eventually force some lineup shuffling from Ken Holland and Mike Babcock. While Patrick Eaves remains sidelined with a fractured jaw, Chris Conner – impressive in his time with the Wings – is likely to return to the lineup in early January, and Tomas Holmstrom should work his way back into the rotation before long as well. This, of course, assumes there are no additional injuries, but one would assume that Holland and Co. would look to get Mursak in the lineup at the expense of Conner and then rotate guys in the Leino Lounge. At any rate, good to hear that #39 is on his way back and we can only hope he’ll be ready to get down to business when his number is called.

Take Care Champ:: Sad news yesterday as the Wings lost a legend and a leader (B1G pun intended) as four-time Stanley Cup Champion player/coach Johnny Wilson passed away. From the official release:

The Detroit Red Wings mourn the loss of former player and coach Johnny Wilson who passed away this morning at the age of 82 following an extended battle with lung disease.   Wilson skated in 379 games over six seasons for the Red Wings, and was a member of four Stanley Cup championship teams as a player forDetroit (1950, ’52, ’54 and ’55).  Johnny registered 79 goals, 100 assists and 179 points in 379 regular-season games for Detroit. In 50 post-season games with the Wings,Wilson tallied 11 goals and nine assists for 20 points.

A native of Kincardine, Ontario, Wilson served as the Red Wings Head Coach for 145 games in 1971-73 and 1972-73 (67-56-22).  He also served behind the bench with Los Angeles, Pittsburgh and Colorado of the NHL and Cleveland, Michigan and Baltimore of the WHA.

One of the best things about being a fan of the Wings is the appreciation the entire organization has for their history and heritage, and it’s great to see them acknowledge the success of a man who is often overlooked in the history books. Godspeed Johnny Wilson. Smile warmly upon the Wings.

Fire Up the Rumor Mill:: Nope, not Eklund. This time it’s ESPN’s Pierre LeBrun, who says the Wings are in the mix to pursue the up-and-down Ales Hemsky from the Edmonton Oilers:

Another club that could come calling on Hemsky is Detroit. The Red Wings have cap space and will be an aggressive team come the trade deadline. They’ll look at all kinds of options but I believe Hemsky will be among the names on their shopping list.

While LeBrun is just getting the train rolling on this one, our good buddy George Malik has been all over this and isn’t sure that Hemsky is the ideal target for the Wings:

I’m not so sure that the Wings are interested in another finesse player, but that’s just me.

If you’re one for predictions, even from a legitimate journalist, Matheson doesn’t believe that Nicklas Lidstrom has a chance in hell of winning the Norris Trophy this year, either, so take that with some salt, and I will say this about Matheson and Wings-related rumors, lest you have visions of a top-ten scorer for a seventh-round draft pick dancing in your head: when Matheson was really “on” regarding the Wings and free agents or re-signings, it involved Ken Holland’s dealings with Edmonton-based agent Rich Winter.

Guess which agent happens to represent #83? We might be talking about a case of a familiar source dangling suitable destinations for his client in front of a hockey writer willing to indulge the agent’s GM-baiting for an easy story’s worth of salaciousness.

While I tend to agree with George on this one in that Hemsky isn’t exactly what the Wings need, his case is an interesting one in that Detroit runs the risk of losing a Cory Emmerton or Jan Mursak trying to pass them through waivers once the roster is fully healthy, and Ken Holland may decide it makes more sense to get something in the short term by trading for a rental player like Hemsky and then filling the void next season with the young talent steadily climbing up the ladder in Grand Rapids. One thing is for sure: the Wings have money to spend, but where they choose to spend it is anyone’s guess. With rumors circulating that bigger trades will happen well before the deadline this year, one would think that the stage is set for the Wings will do some soul-searching and potentially walk away with a new player, but with Kenny you just never know.

And Finally…:: Joakim Andersson heads into uncharted waters in Detroit hockey history. Remember Danny Dekeyser? He’s all the rage right now. @commie22 has usurped Jakub Kindl’s role. Can it last? Finland dropped the US at the World Junior Championship. I hope my professional colleagues are out celebrating.

BRUNNSTROM DEMOTED
This morning, the team announced that Fabian Brunnstrom has been assigned to the Grand Rapids Griffins. Perhaps impressed with Chris Conner’s hustle in Friday night’s game in Buffalo and realizing that Bruno is no closer to cracking the lineup that he has been all season, the Wings decided it’d be best if he got to play some real minutes on the farm. He will be available tonight against the Chicago Wolves. With Conner’s recall to the Wings, the Griffins will be without their leading scorer for at least the duration of Detroit’s current road trip. Louis-Marc Aubry was promoted to the top line with Jamie Johnson and Goose Nyquist and had the first three-point night of his professional career last night. One would assume that Brunnstrom will occupy the other wing on the top line. Brunnstrom’s wife, Sandy, gave birth to their first child, Alexander, on Friday.

STRADER CALLING THE AVS GAME
It’ll be like old times on Sunday, as the Wings take on the Avalanche in Denver. Following Friday’s unfortunate passing of Ken Daniels’ 96-year-old father, Marvin, Mr. Daniels will head to Toronto to begin making arrangements for his family. Former Red Wings play-by-play man and current NHL on NBC/Versus announcer Dave Strader will be calling Sunday’s game, reminding us what it’s like to be six years old again. Except, hopefully, Glen Hanlon isn’t in net for Detroit.

Photo Credit: Mandi Wright, Detroit Free Press

One man's art...Another man's mess...

Vladinating the Canvas:: It seems like once or twice a year we get an update about our old friend Vladimir Konstantinov and his long journey to recover from the Day That Shall Not Be Mentioned. For me, it’s still tough to see a guy like Vladdy in the shape that he is in, and I always wonder how difficult it must be to walk in his shoes and live a life when so much was taken away. There’s no denying the guy has guts, though, and he’s off on a new endeavor now: painting. And the works of #16 are going to be on display on November 17th:

The show, called Animals and Inspirations, will be at Gallery U & Boutique in Royal Oak on November 17, 2011 from 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm.  (To find out more about Gallery U & Boutique and the incredible work they do, please read Gallery U: Art and Inspiration).  Vlady and his family will be in attendance.  Vlady has personally signed and hand framed his pieces and anyone who makes a purchase will be able to have their picture taken with Vlady and the art.  “We are very excited for Vlady the artist” said Barb Hill, Vocational Director for Therapeutic Rehab Centers, “We are hoping that this show will go very well and that he will continue to do shows in the future.”

There’s a couple examples of his works at the link before the quote, and – as a person who can’t draw a stick figure well – they are pretty darn good. Personally, I like the penguin, although I think Vladdy should have painted himself in there crushing it into the glass. I would have dropped fat stacks for that one.

The Art of Negotiating:: Apparently Columbus doesn’t have it, since the people’s choice to replace Scott Arniel behind the bench – Ken Hitchcock – up and left to take the reigns in St. Louis. As much as it’s fun to ridicule Hitch, he’s a guy who has always had the respect of Uncle Mike and therefore is someone you don’t necessarily want to see six times a year in divisional play. For the Blues, it’s a bit of a radical change in that they’ve gone from a disciplinarian like Andy Murray to the “player’s coach” in Davis Payne to a guy that demands respect and order in Hitchcock. It will be interesting to see how the Blues players respond to the new bench boss, but if they do take well to Hitch, there’s a good chance they will put up some points and make some noise in the division. As for the Blue Jackets, well, PD hits it on the head:

As for the Blue Jackets … well, the assumption was that Hitchcock would slide in behind the bench with one more year on his contract with the team. Scott Arniel remains the coach, and doesn’t have any meetings with Jackets brass scheduled. As he told Puck-Rakers: “I’ll keep showing up until somebody tells me I’m not supposed to.”

Other than his contract, there never seemed to be a compelling reason for Hitchcock to take over the disaster that are the 2011-12 Columbus Blue Jackets. So he didn’t.

If Arniel makes it out of November, he’s got the brass by the balls with some incriminating photos or something.

Starving Artists:: As in “starving” here at TPL. We are still on the hunt for some ideas for new shirts for the TPL store, but the inbox isn’t exactly filling up with ideas. Maybe it’s because you have as much artistic talent as I do and can’t even color in the lines, but we’re sure there are ideas out there and we want to hear from you. So much so, that we’ve actually enlisted the help of our very own Stevie (who’s just now finding out about this…) to help you sketch out ideas to put on a shirt. Seriously. If you have something funny or catchy that you think would make a good shirt, just send us a mail and we’ll put Stevie on a plane out to draw for you. Wait, no. We’ll have Stevie e-mail you and work to make your Picasso come to life. If your shirt makes it on to the site store, we’ll even give you one for free. Make it happen peeps.

And Finally… :: Bert and Huds are sick (no more making out) and won’t play tonight against Colorado. Meanwhile, Commie dreams of (and apparently practices) playing right wing with Twitter buddy Cory Emmerton. How are they going to Twitpic each other? Despite the six games of suck from his teammates, Jimmah remains hot. Babcock has opted for reverse psychology. Jiri Hudler is still confused. Water is wet.