The Hat Trick is Alive and Well

Greetings Hat Trick Fans...it's been a while since my last post and I do apologize for not posting sooner. Fall 2009 has ended up being a busy time between the newest member of the Hat Trick family and my continued job hunt. With the holidays approaching and most organizations suspending hiring activities I'm hoping to have some more time to post on my favorite topics...Detroit Red Wings hockey, air travel and politics. There is a lot happening in Washington, DC these days and I hope to provide some insight.

In the meantime, thanks for sticking with the Hat Trick and have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Ouch

That's about all you can say. The Wings got pounded last night by Nashville in a 8 - 0 rout...the most points allowed since giving up seven to the Pittsburgh Penguins in November. Ty Conklin got run out of goal and Chris Osgood took over but the offense couldn't get moving. Granted, it was their third game of the week and second game in a row after a win in Detroit against the Kings but you would still expect some level of offense with all the talent on the Red Wings. It looks like the team has a little soul searching to do before flying to St. Louis or a Tuesday game against the Blues and then on to Colorado to face the Avs Wednesday night.

Wings Pound Sharks

The Hat Trick is happy, if belated, to report that Wednesday's "Big Game" against the Sharks at the JLA was all Wings, all Night. The Wings skated to a decisive 4 - 1 win over the Western Conference leaders...a great way to end the season series with them...the next time they meet could be in the playoffs. Henrick Zetterberg played exceptionally well and scored twice; Ty Conklin was solid in goal. The Wings looked solid in both offense and defense and showed they can handle the Sharks.

The other potential drama of the evening didn't really pan out as Claude Lemieux only played about five minutes in the entire game although he was booed loudly and often during the night!

Wings Down 1 - 0

Update: Looks like the Wings are down 1 – 0 after a goal by Left Winger Raffi Torres at the end of the first period. Ironically no penalties in the period…lets hope the Wings can get on the board in the second when the Hat Trick can watch it live after putting Baby Hat Trick to bed…

Wings at Blue Jackets

The Hat Trick is happy to see that the Red Wings have returned to their winning ways after a disastrous slump that included a 4 – 2 loss to the Washington Capitals on January 31. Tonight the Wings face the division rival Columbus Blue Jackets in Nationwide Arena, Columbus, Ohio with a six game winning streak in place. This is a big improvement over the five game losing streak they compiled in January although the Hat Trick didn’t panic this year (unlike last winter during the six game losing streak the Wings endured) because things worked out pretty well for the Wings last year (for the non-hockey fan readers…the Red Wings won the Stanley Cup). Tonight Detroit will be looking for a win in a season high seventh game consecutive win streak.

Columbus also has a lot on the line tonight as they are working hard to get into the top eight in the Western Conference standings, guaranteeing them a playoff spot. Currently outside the top eight, the Blue Jackets are only two points behind the Dallas Stars and Minnesota Wild who are tired for the eight spot in the Western Conference.

Should be a good game between division rivals…hopefully the Red Wings can avoid any Friday the 13th curses and get that seventh win!

Wings Lose 4 -2

The third period killed the Wings when Alexander Ovechkin scored two goals that put the Capitals ahead 4-2. The Wings never recovered. This puts Detroit on a five game losing streak and also signifies that the days of the Wings coming into the Caps rink and cleaning up are over. Ovechkin’s goals were extremely impressive and the Caps played a solid game for all three periods. While the Hat Trick wishes that his Wings had come out on top I am glad to see the Caps have such good success. If they keep playing the way they are they should go deep in the Eastern Conference playoffs this spring.

Wings-Caps Tied After Two Periods

Caps go up by one on a nice goal by Mike Green but Wings come right back with a power play goal by Johan Franzen. Second period is now complete with a tie game at two apiece. Looks like the whole game is going to be tight…

Wings-Caps Series Update

Update from Washington Capitals announcer Joe Beninati (sometimes seen doing play-by-play on Versus) just reported that the last time the Caps beat the Wings in Washington was Halloween 2000 so it’s been a while for the Caps.

Wings-Caps Tied After One Period

It looks like we’ve got a game…end of the first period with a 1-1 score. The Wings scored first with a goal by Ville Leino (first NHL career goal) but the Caps followed up with a nice goal by Viktor Kozlov.

Looks like we are going to have a good game…only wish I could be there in person!

Red Wings In the Hat Trick's Backyard

The Hat Trick is sitting down to watch the Red Wings play the hometown Capitals this afternoon. Attending the game in person was not an option due to my soon-to-be unemployment status so will have to be content with seeing the game on the widescreen.

The Wings have been in a bit of a slide lately having last their last four games…two before the All-Star break and two after the game. I’m hoping they can stop the skid against the Caps today but that could be a tall order. While recent game history shows the Wings have handled the Caps pretty well (and the Hat Trick has had the privilege to view many of those games here in DC) the Caps are a much better team…Washington currently is leading the Southeast Division and is in third place in points total in the NHL’s Eastern Conference. As a result the Wings are going to have their hands full during this game…hopefully it will be a good one and not like Thursday night’s loss to the Dallas Stars in the JLA where the Wings had to climb out of a big hole and weren’t able to get it done. We’ll see if they can do any better against the Caps this afternoon.

Shanahan, Part II

Some additional information, compliments of NJ.com, on how Shanny stayed in shape before joining the New Jersey Devils this month...not what you would normally expect!

Nice to See Shanahan Back

Just watched former Red Wing (and Ranger, Blues, Whaler and drafted by the Devils) player Brendan Shanahan score after signing with the New Jersey Devils in January. Shanahan was an integral part of the Red Wing's Stanley Cup runs in 1997, 1998 and 2002 and was sorry to see him not signed by a team after last season. While he is reaching the end of his career it's good to see some of these old Wings still playing.

Wings Lose to Blue Jackets

The Hat Trick just watched the Red Wings lose to the Columbus Blue Jackets in overtime...not a pretty game. The Wings looked rusty, especially without team captain Nick Lidstrom and Pavel Datsyuck who are serving their one game suspensions for not attending the All-Star game festivities in Montreal. The fact that we lost Henrik Zetterberg in the first period to back spasms didn't help...plus the fact that the Blue Jackets are having a good year and working hard to make sure they make the playoffs this year...a very realistic possibility for the team.

No need to panic at this point but hoping the Wings get back into form before they visit Washington, DC this Saturday to play the Washington Capitals (who also lost tonight in overtime). The Hat Trick isn't sure if he is going to attend the Wings/Caps game or not...my soon-to-be unemployment status makes purchasing hockey tickets a little difficult. Now if one of the Hat Trick's colleagues can come through with free tickets..well, that's a different matter entirely!

All-Star Game Tonight

The Hat Trick is spending a quiet Sunday at home today and looking forward to the NHL All- Star game tonight at 6:00pm…live from Montreal, Canada. The All-Star game is always a good time for me…the skills competition is great and all the talent on the ice during the actual game is truly impressive. The format for this year’s game is Eastern Conference v. Western Conference which is an improvement over the old format that had a North America team v. a World team. We should see a lot of offense tonight and it is great that the game is in Montreal, celebrating the Canadiens 100th year anniversary.

NHL Winter Classic

The Hat Trick is a little late in getting this post out on the NHL Winter Classic…but better late than never!

Needless to say the Hat Trick enjoyed the Winter Classic immensely. Not only was the Hat Trick’s Stanley Cup Champion Detroit Red Wings playing but they came from behind and won big against the Chicago Blackhawks, one of the NHL’s oldest rivalries. The game was fantastic and it was crazy to see Wrigley Field with an ice rink in the middle of the park…but the stands were packed with fans just like a Cubs game. Mrs. East Coast Wing, a former Chicagoan, enjoyed it as well and could even see her old building from some of the television shots.

The Hat Trick is a BIG proponent of the NHL continuing this game format. The game received some of the highest television ratings for ice hockey ever and it was a nice diversion from all of the college bowl game mania that takes place on New Year’s Day. There are so many good rivalries and venues available across the country for this kinds of game…Fenway Park in Boston, Yankee Stadium in New York, Mile High (INVESCO) in Denver, Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Heinz Field in Pittsburgh or even go to a neutral city like Cleveland, Ohio and play the game in Cleveland Browns Stadium, right on cold and windy Lake Erie!

It’s great to see hockey make a comeback after the strike year and the Hat Trick thinks that the NHL has found a great format to bring more fans into the fold. The Hat Trick plans to watch every year, even if the Red Wings aren’t in the game, although it sure was a nice way to start the New Year with a big Red Wing’s win in a big game. Since I’m sure Commissioner Gary Bettman is a Hat Trick reader we will be hearing about the next Winter Classic location very soon…

Opening Night Final Thoughts

The Hat Trick is somewhat embarrassed to note that, after posting earlier tonight that the Hockey Night in Canada match-up between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Montreal Canadiens is always "a great match-up." Unfortunately for the Maple Leafs, they got pounded 6-1. To paraphrase Don Cherry on Hockey Night in Canada…that's not nice and Ron Wilson (the Maple Leaf's new head coach) will remember that. The Hat Trick stands corrected!

In one final thought, the Hat Trick notes that the fourth fight in the Canucks-Flames game has just taken place...good, old school hockey!

Opening Saturday Night in the NHL

The Hat Trick has been privileged in watching some good NHL hockey tonight, the first Saturday night of play in the 2008-2009 season. Already some good games have been played and some are currently ongong.

Of tremendous importance to the Hat Trick is the fact that the Red Wings won their first game of the season, defeating the Ottawa Senators 3-2. It was a close game up until the end, especially during the last minute of the third period when the Senators put an extra attacker on the ice (creating an "empty net" situation…in order to put the extra attacker on the ice you have to pull your team's goalie) and it went down to the buzzer. Ottawa is a though team in the Eastern Conference and I'm pleased that the Wings were able to come out on top. An added bonus for the Hat Trick is getting to hear the national anthem of both Canada and the United States sung so beautifully by the representative from the Canadian Armed Forces…they always perform the national anthems in such a magnificent way.

Other highlights of the night include:

• The Washington Capitals put together a come-from-behind win against the Chicago Blackhawks, winning 4-2. The Hat Trick considers himself a secondary Capitals fan since it is the only way to get NHL hockey in the nation's capital. I like to see the Caps do well…they have a great arena to play in (the Verizon Center) and have a dedicated, yet small, following. The Hat Trick wishes the Caps well, however the Hat Trick always is loyal to the Red Wings when they play the Caps…which created some problems for the Hat Trick in 1998 when the Capitals matched up against the Red Wings for the Stanley Cup…and got swept by the Wings 4-0. Some of the Hat Trick's friends are still annoyed about that!
  
• Republican Vice Presidential Candidate Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska, dropped an honorary puck at the start of the Flyers-Rangers game today. Regardless of how you feel about Governor Palin, it's kind of nice to challenge baseball on the sports connection with politics in America. The Rangers won 4-3.
  
• During the intermission between Game 1 and Game 2 on Hockey Night in Canada, Ron MacLean (mentioned in a previous post) had a segment with CBC News on the upcoming elections in Canada this coming Tuesday. Can you imagine that happening in the United States?
  
• The Hat Trick currently is watching fun, scrappy, physical game between the Vancouver Canucks and the Calgary Flames on Hockey Night in Canada. Calgary is pummeling the Canucks 3-1 as the first period is winding down.
• Most importantly...CBC broadcaster was sporting a great suit with a Mickey Mouse tie tonight...classic Don Cherry!
  

Needless to say, the Hat Trick is enjoying his hockey tonight. More to come on the NHL and the Detroit Red Wings…it allows the Hat Trick to avoid discussing the presidential election in which he is becoming increasingly weary!

Hockey Night in Canada

The Hat Trick is very excited that the NHL season has begun, even if the Red Wings lost their home opener against the Maple Leafs 3-2. As I blogged in an earlier post, there was a lot of emotion at the beginning of the game due to the raising of the banner commemorating Detroit's 11^th Stanley Cup victory…plus the fact that the Stanley Cup was in "The House" that night. The Cup also went through some other amusing activities involving the aging rock group Def Leppard.

Tonight…Saturday night to be specific…is the first broadcast for the 2008-2009 hockey season of "Hockey Night In Canada", a staple of hockey for a boy growing up in Michigan. Hockey Night in Canada is produced by the Canadian Broadcast Corporation (CBC) and blows away most of the other hockey-related sports programming coming out of the United States…not a surprise given that hockey is the national pastime of Canada. Hockey Night in Canada began as a radio program in 1931, albeit with a different name. In 1952 the CBC began broadcasting Hockey Night in Canada on television, with the first color games being broadcast in 1966.

The format for Hockey Night in Canada (HNIC) is simple…they broadcast a game in the Eastern time zone, usual starting at 7:00pm. Since it is the Canadian Broadcast Corporation, the game always includes a Canadian team, and in many cases, the showcase game will include two Canadian teams playing each other…the Toronto Maple Leafs taking on the Montreal Canadiens is always a great match-up. Following the game in the East, a game in the West usually starts around 10:00pm in the East and, once again, features at least one Canadian team from the Mountain or Western time zone. The addition of the second game didn't begin until 1988 when Wayne Gretsky ("The Great One") began playing for the Los Angeles Kings and this allowed Canadian viewers to see more of him after his glory years with the Edmonton Oilers. The second game only took place when a Canadian team visited Los Angeles and didn't become a regular staple until 1995.

One highlight of HNIC is without a doubt "Coach's Corner" with Don Cherry and Ron MacLean. Don Cherry is a unique guy…with some of the most interesting suits you can imagine. Don Cherry is a former coach of the Boston Bruins and provides tremendous color analysis to all the games going on in the NHL. Until I started watching Don Cherry on CBC I never knew that Canadians referred to former Red Wings Captain Steve Yzerman (who's #19 sweater the Hat Trick still wears proudly to Red Wings games) as "Stevie Y"…he was always "Yzerman" to the U.S. broadcast crews and to many Michiganders as "The Captain" reflecting Yzerman's ongoing leadership of the team as Red Wings captain. Frankly, I find the announcers from the CBC to be so much more interesting compared with announcers on Versus and NBC that broadcast NHL games. I guess it's the fact that it is the country's most popular sport compared with it's increasing decline in the United States. If you every get a chance to see a hockey game broadcast by CBC it is worth watching…and if you get to see Don Cherry then it is a bonus night indeed!

Hockey Night in Canada also has a hold on the Hat Trick for sentimental reasons. Growing up in Detroit in an era as cable was just becoming mainstream, your main TV choices were, like most other U.S. cities, the three major broadcast networks (this was before the advent of FOX) and generally two other independent stations featuring sit-com reruns…in the case of Detroit it was Channel 50 and Channel 20 with Channel 62 available but mostly focused on religious and local access programming (ironically Channel 62 is now the CBS affiliate in Detroit…how things change!). However, in Detroit you could also get Channel 9, the CBC affiliate from across the Detroit River in Windsor, Ontario. Generally one wouldn't generally watch Channel 9 except to get HNIC on Saturday night, especially when the Red Wings were playing a Canadian NHL team. Sometimes you would stay loyal to the home channel for the actual game but during intermission you immediately changed to Channel 9 so you could get the HNIC crew, especially Don Cherry. Lots of times in bars (the Hat Trick discovered this as he got older) they would show the CBC broadcast instead of the local broadcast. During the playoffs, when both CBC and U.S. stations were broadcasting the NHL playoffs I can't remember a time when Channel 9 wasn't on so we could get CBC. In one memorable example, the Hat Trick went to a local watering hole with the Hat Trick's best friend (since 6^th grade, no less) to watch the NHL All Star game in January of 1996. This was during the time when FOX Sports had the broadcast rights to NHL games and used the All Star game to debut the "FOX Trak" which was a puck that had electronics within the puck that allowed viewers to track the puck. The idea was to make the NHL more "watchable" on television, a frequent complaint of some viewers of the game. Well, that cold night in Detroit the reaction to the "FOX Trak" was loud and vocal in this watering hole…"turn it off"…and Channel 9 was immediately put on to watching HNIC to broadcast the All Star game.

After looking back at all that I have written…I had planned a quick, short post when I first started writing…I realize that Hockey Night in Canada is one of the fond memories of childhood and growing up that I still can hold onto. While I've been in Washington, DC for many, many years I've never thought of myself as a local like many of my colleagues who have come to Washington from different parts of the country. The Hat Trick loves football, in addition to hockey, and yet cannot warm up to the Washington Redskins even though the 'Skins have a rich history and loyal following among Washingtonians…for my Detroit readers the Redskins is the top team in DC much like the Red Wings are the top team in Detroit. I guess that Hockey Night in Canada is a way for me to stay connected to what I still feel is my home and my roots…feelings I will probably never have for Washington. While you can never live in the past, sometimes having things that remind you of the past are good…they keep you grounded in where you came from which might help provide you direction in where you want to go. For the Hat Trick, Hockey Night in Canada provides some of those positive memories…keeping me grounded (hopefully) and reminding me of the past and the place and the people that I have come from in my life.

Governor Palin To Drop Puck Saturday

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, the Republican Vice Presidential nominee, will drop the puck at the Philadelphia Flyer's home opener against the New York Rangers this Saturday, October 11. Governor Palin, a self-described "Hockey Mom", has interestingly brought together the world of presidential politics and the National Hockey League together…which, as you can imagine, makes the Hat Trick very happy! Regardless if you like her or hate her, it's kind of nice to see some attention given to the NHL for a change as it gets so very little attention when competing with Major League Baseball, the National Football League and the National Basketball Association. Good luck to you Governor Palin and please give some thought to doing a "Gordie Howe Hat Trick" while you're on the ice…the uninitiated to this should check out my February 4 post for the explanation to this very special Hat Trick!

Finally, in an attempt to be bipartisan and include my liberal readers, I will make the first hockey/Governor Palin joke:

"It's a shame the Flyers game couldn't have been against the Ottawa Senators so she could get a little more foreign policy experience…"

Red Wings Defends Stanley Cup Starting Tonight

Tonight, October 9, the Detroit Red Wing commences the start of defending their Stanley Cup with a game against fellow "Original Six" team Toronto Maple Leafs. The game starts at 8:00pm EDT and will feature raising the banner celebrating the winning of their 18^th Stanley Cup last June. Much of the team returns for the 2008-09 season with Forward Dallas Drake retiring (after winning his first Stanley Cup in June) and Goalie Dominik Hasek retiring for the second time in his career after a less than spectacular 2008 post-season. Yahoo Sports put together a nice write-up on Red Wings, noting that the team did not make any splashy free agent moves over the free agent period this summer with the exception of signing former Penguin Marian Hossa. This speaks a lot to the depth of the Red Wings with two dominant lines and a host of talented players as Yahoo Sports notes. Goalie Chris Osgood solidified his role as starting goalie after solid regular season in 2007-08 sharing duties with Dominik Hasek and then took over permanently after Hasek floundered in the first round of the playoffs against the Nashville Predators.

The future looks good for the Wings and I'm excited about the news season. I agree with Yahoo Sports that the biggest challenge for the Wings will be complacency…a"been there, done that" approach that could cause an upset with a hungrier team. The Wings have the pieces in place to repeat, which they did in 1998 after winning the Stanley Cup in 1997, so it has been accomplished in recent history. I think complacency has actually been a big problem for the team in recent history…we saw it at the end of several seasons, especially in 2002, 2003 and 2006 when they had a great regular season and then chocked in the playoffs. If they can keep their focus and avoid the complacency issues, plus remain health, I don't see why they can't repeat and win it all again in June 2009.