What We Learned: Embarrassing LA sports media moments while covering Kings playoff run (Puck Daddy)
(Mon, 21 May 2012 06:58:22 PDT)
Hello, this is a feature that will run through the entire season and aims to recap the weekend's events and boils those events down to one admittedly superficial fact or stupid opinion about each team. Feel free to complain about it. It's possibly the greatest bit of investigative journalism conducted since Woodward and Bernstein brought down Richard Nixon. This exemplary, collective effort of sleuth work is currently ongoing in Los Angeles, Calif., where an entire media market has unearthed the NHL's shocking secret: The city has a professional hockey team. Over the past week or so here at Puck Daddy, we've tried to document every startling discovery made by the intrepid Los Angeles media, like how to properly pronounce Anze Kopitar's name (it's hard because he's from Bosnia or something), the real name of this Drew Doughty character ( it's actually Brad !) and that hockey is in fact not played with a ball, but rather a little piece of rubber known as a "puck." That last one makes me pretty uncomfortable because of the word it rhymes with. ("Duck" — sorry, I just don't trust 'em; they have weird beaks). Just how villainous is this team, operating as a sort of sporting sleeper cell? They got all the way to the Western Conference Finals without one local noticing. That takes real criminal talent. And not only that, but, the NHL had the diabolical idea to hide it right under the Los Angelinos' noses, by having their home games played at the Staples Center. You know, where the Lakers play. Further, they named the team the Kings to intentionally confuse even the savviest media organization into thinking they are the NBA's Sacramento Kings. Astonishingly devious stuff. More twists and turns than the Da Vinci Code, which I've read three times just to make sure I understood it all. The best bit of this journalism on this pressing issue comes, of course, from the city's paper of record, the Los Angeles Times, winner of 44 Pulitzer Prizes since 1942, including three in 2012. It was for that towering beacon of journalistic excellence that columnist Chris Erskine successfully scruted several of the team and sport's most inscrutable mysteries . For instance, that thing I said earlier about the puck (again, yuck… oh and that's another gross word it rhymes with), I learned it from Erskine. Apparently they even freeze the thing. And that's a huge point of concern, because, "The hardest shots can reach 110 mph and tear flesh, crush bone, even kill you if you're not careful." Yikes, you guys! ( Coming Up: Rick Nash to Boston?; Tororella defends Prust; Ryan Suter faces his future; Evegni Malkin is having a pretty good season; why Lundqvist is King; why the Capitals can't win with Ovechkin; the Islanders know how to party; Canucks might keep Luongo; Ryan Miller on the CBA; Flames and Oilers coaching news; and are the Kings in trouble?)

Russia back on top, defeats Slovakia 6-2 in final (The Associated Press)
(Sun, 20 May 2012 15:52:23 PDT)
HELSINKI (AP) Russia won the world championship Sunday by defeating Slovakia 6-2.

LA Kings fight excitement about playoff run (The Associated Press)
(Fri, 18 May 2012 15:59:40 PDT)
EL SEGUNDO, Calif. (AP) Dwight King has been living in a hotel since the Los Angeles Kings recalled him from the minors just over three months ago, and the playoff hero isn't about to move out of his temporary digs.

Avalanche sign veteran forward Hejduk to one-year deal
(Fri, 18 May 2012 14:43:06 PDT)
(Reuters) - Veteran forward, team captain and three-time All-Star Milan Hejduk has signed a one-year contract to stay with the Colorado Avalanche through the 2012-13 season, the National Hockey League (NHL) team said on Friday. The softly spoken 36-year-old Czech Republic native, who helped Colorado win the Stanley Cup in 2001, has played for the club for the last 13 years. A triple Olympian, Hejduk recorded 11 straight 20-goal seasons in Colorado from 1999-00 to 2010-11, and is just nine games short of becoming the first player in the franchise to appear in 1,000 games. ...

Oilers torched for Renney firing; Milan Hejduk back; Alex Radulov fallout (Puck Headlines) (Puck Daddy)
(Fri, 18 May 2012 13:26:44 PDT)
Here are your Puck Headlines: a glorious collection of news and views collected from the greatest blogosphere in sports and the few, the proud, the mainstream hockey media. • Look, JGL: "Inception" was the bomb. You were Han Solo in "500 Days of Summer." You probably become Batman when Bane breaks Bruce Wayne's back (/speculation). But please do not wear the Lakers gear to the Kings game. That said, feel free to wear the Kings gear to the Lakers game, if there are still going to be Lakers games this spring. • The Ryan Suter watch begins next week. Hold on to your butts. [ Malik ] • Shea Weber on Alex Radulov's quasi-suspension in Round 2 for the Nashville Predators: "You feel a little bit betrayed, but I am sure he feels bad about it now and he looks back on it and wishes it didn't happen. Those are the things you can't take back and we've got to move forward." [ Examiner ] • Pekka Rinne on Radulov and the curfew issue: "It didn't affect as much as media made it seem like. The way I see it, Radulov joining the team mid-season affected the atmosphere more than the incident that happened in the playoffs." [ On The Forecheck ] • Milan Hejduk is back with the Colorado Avalanche for one year and $2 million. Says Dater: "Yeah, I'm a little concerned about where/what Hejduk's role might be. I mean, it's a little worrisome to think he'll be relied upon perhaps as a top-six forward. And yet, would he really be effective on a third or fourth line? Those are questions Joe Sacco will have to grapple with next season." [ All Things Avs ] • Great work here by Nick Cotsonika on burgeoning New York Rangers star and rookie sensation Chris Kreider. [ Y! Sports ] • Ryan Callahan says his left hand isn't injured, despite blocking a shot with it back in the Ottawa series. [ NYDN ] • Darryl Sutter, on the growth of Los Angeles Kings forward Dwight King: "Growth?" Sutter said. "He's still 232 (pounds). After games, he's 228." [ LA Kings Insider ] • Kerry Fraser on embellishing players in the postseason: "The Conference Finals of the Stanley Cup playoffs is not the time for the referees to strap on the six guns in an effort to clean up embellishment in Dodge. The refs must however, ramp up their radar and if any doubt is created in their mind as to the legitimacy of a foul, then I would suggest they keep their arm down and play on. I also hope they will seize every opportunity to enforce obvious embellishment by calling a penalty (whether as a 'stand alone' penalty or a coincidental minor when embellishment occurs as the aftermath to a legitimate foul)." [ TSN ] • John MacKinnon torches the Edmonton Oilers for firing Tom Renney. "This move — anticipated as it was — was a long, slow slap in the face to a coach who deserved better. If you're the incoming man, it would be wise to at least ponder the fashion in which the Oilers will ultimately dump you. That might help you decide whether you want to accept the job in the first place." [ Journal ] • David Staples does much the same: "My bottom line on Renney? He  earned a new deal. He made a few big miscalculations, but much more was going right than wrong under his direction." [ Cult of Hockey ] • From Black Dog: "The Oilers are like the opposite of that and maybe this should be their master plan. Howson has already destroyed Columbus. Maybe Messier can take over the Rangers and Prendergast can move to Chicago. Let Tambo move back to Vancouver and Buchberger coach the Avs. Let them go forth and multiply and take their special brand of incompetence to the rest of the league, like the Black Plague, destroying franchises as they alight from their private jets, just as flea ridden rats destroyed cities as they swarmed ashore from ships manned by infected doomed sailors." [ BDHS ] • Ellen Etchingham on the Los Angeles Kings: "These Kings, they just look so brilliant. So clearly and completely and definitively ass-whoopingly eye-catchingly heart-liftingly brilliant. They play the way I'd always hoped a Cup-winning team would play. They play like they are actually so much better than everyone else that they ( *gasp* ) deserve to win. There's still a part of me that can't wholly believe they're for real. There's a part of me that's still tensed for the inevitable fall. But, nevertheless, I hope. I would like to see a team take the Cup this decisively, in less than twenty games. I want to see a juggernaut victory." [ Backhand Shelf ] • Alex Ovechkin was named the 11th most marketable athlete internationally in 2012. [ Alex Ovetjkin ] "A finalized lease agreement with a potential Phoenix Coyotes buyer has yet to emerge publicly but a Glendale City Council majority appears poised to approve a $17 million fee to operate the city-owned arena." [ AZ Central ] • Hopefully, when Daniel Alfredsson says he may have played his last competitive game, he means all 82 games next season for the Ottawa Senators (plus playoffs) are blowouts. [ Senators Extra ] • Finally, the New York Mets all wore hockey jerseys on their road trip to Canada. Expected to see more Islanders sweaters, given that both franchises have been living off the glory of the 1980s for decades… ( Kukla )

Hejduk signs one-year deal with Avalanche (The Associated Press)
(Fri, 18 May 2012 12:21:03 PDT)
DENVER (AP) The Colorado Avalanche brought back one of the last remaining links to the team's Stanley Cup glory days, signing captain Milan Hejduk to a one-year deal.

Avalanche re-sign Hejduk to one-year deal (The SportsXchange)
(Fri, 18 May 2012 11:10:10 PDT)
Right-winger Milan Hejduk has signed a one-year contract with the Colorado Avalanche, the team announced Friday.

How the Last 13 Stanley Cup Champions Didn't Repeat, Part 3: Fan's Take (Yahoo! Contributor Network)
(Wed, 16 May 2012 13:07:00 PDT)
In the past 13 years, all 13 Stanley Cup champions fell short of raising the Cup another consecutive time. The first part of this series looked at how the champions from 1999, 2000 and 2001 failed to repeat. Last week, part two studied how the 2002, 2003 and 2004 champions missed the chance to win again. This week, part three explains how the 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009 champions were undone the next year.

Anaheim's Ryan helps U.S. defeat Switzerland at worlds (The SportsXchange)
(Wed, 16 May 2012 09:40:16 PDT)
The Anaheim Ducks' Bobby Ryan scored the first of four unanswered goals to help the United States to a 5-2 victory over Switzerland at the ice hockey world championships in Helsinki on Tuesday.

Canada living the life of O'Reilly at ice hockey worlds
(Tue, 15 May 2012 14:06:31 PDT)
Olympic champions Canada's impressive form at the world championships continued here on Tuesday as they rounded off their preliminary group campaign with their sixth win out of seven a 5-1 thrashing of Belarus.

What We Learned: What to make of this Washington Capitals season? (Puck Daddy)
(Mon, 14 May 2012 05:28:10 PDT)
Hello, this is a feature that will run through the entire season and aims to recap the weekend's events and boils those events down to one admittedly superficial fact or stupid opinion about each team. Feel free to complain about it. There's been a lot of talk about what this season has meant for the Washington Capitals in the hours leading up to, and then immediately following, their final game of the remarkably eventful 2011-12 season. Wysh had a pretty good recap of the reasons the Capitals felt this little run to a pair of one-goal Game 7s against the Nos. 1 and 2 seeds in the Eastern Conference — both having been heavy favorites — vindicated the Dale Hunter system of everyone playing defense and collapsing to within three inches of the crease, and it's perfectly reasonable for people to feel that way. Certainly, no one expected these Capitals to do much damage in the postseason given that they frittered away a division they were picked to dominate. But the thing that everyone seems to forget is that, again, they were picked to dominate the Southeast, be a superpower in the East and the League at large. If the team tuned out Bruce Boudreau, and it appears they did, then wasn't his replacement, whoever it happened to be, more or less expected to get this far? Therefore, it becomes a question about what changed, and really, what didn't. Let's not forget, Boudreau came in originally and let guys like Alex Semin, Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom and Mike Green have their run of the rink. Two-minute shifts? Sure! Goals aplenty? You bet. But in the end, what did it get them? Bounce-outs, and if you believe the talk, disappointing ones at that. So Boudreau changed the style, focusing more on defense, tethering Ovechkin and Co. to an extent, and … getting the same amount of success. Under each of the two clearly definable Boudreau regimes, the team lost in the conference quarter- and semi-finals. Which is of course notable because the latter is exactly how far Hunter got in his first chance at the tiller, despite doing everything in his power not to: like limiting Ovechkin to fewer than 20 minutes a night in every game in this series save for Saturday's Game 7 and the three-overtime Game 3, in which he played 35:14 — or, if you prefer 17:37 per three periods of play. This therefore vindicates Hunter only as far as it vindicated Boudreau; which, with a roster like this, and given the "choker" label being hung liberally on the former Caps coach this time last year. The philosophy changed radically under Hunter, and worked only as far as it did for Boudreau. Why? ( Coming Up: Team USA, international ass-kickers; getting stupid about Patrick Kane's drinking; Parise's future; Could Brad Stuart return to the Sharks?; Kevin Lowe says Ryan Murray is the top player in this year's draft class; Suter/Weber questions; Pancakes Penner's revenge; Bruins pumped for Dougie Hamilton; Alfredsson retirement watch; Leafs/Penguins trade?; Lundqvist is King; Alex Burrows runs and hugs a goalie; and Winnipeg Jets fans are burning Coyotes jerseys.)

Canada rout Kazakhstan to confirm group lead
(Sat, 12 May 2012 13:41:50 PDT)
Vacouver Olympic champions Canada maintained their world ice hockey championship preliminary group lead with an 8-0 thrashing of former Soviet republic Kazakhstan here on Saturday.

Colorado Avalanche sign 3 goaltending prospects (The Associated Press)
(Fri, 11 May 2012 16:12:21 PDT)
DENVER (AP) The Colorado Avalanche have signed three goaltending prospects to entry-level contracts.

Braden Holtby making most of playoff opportunity with mentally mature approach
(Fri, 11 May 2012 13:33:50 PDT)
Reformed hot-head Holtby uses mental imagery and visualization to calm down and focus on the task at hand - leading the Washington Capitals deeper and deeper into the playoffs.

Watch Gabriel Landeskog and Victor Hedman sing ABBA, and prepare to send an S.O.S. (VIDEO) (Puck Daddy)
(Tue, 08 May 2012 11:03:02 PDT)
It's just assumed that certain regions have songs by their representative artists committed to memory: New Jerseyans and Bruce Springsteen, Canadians and Stompin' Tom Connors and, of course, the Swedish and ABBA. To that end, perhaps the biggest surprise in the following video is that Gabriel Landeskog of the Colorado Avalanche and Victor Hedman of the Tampa Bay Lightning need any lyrical assistance at all. OK, actually, the biggest surprise is that these guys killed it on "S.O.S." Hedman looks like a stoic Benicio Del Toro being forced to perform Swedish karaoke until the end, when he raises his arms and gives an Arsenio "whoop whoop." Landeskog, however, is using a complicated cross-leg toe tap to keep time and, frankly, is the better singer who looks like he knows his way around a Benny Andersson/Björn Ulvaeus tune. That friends, is the stuff of a Calder winner. Your move, Nuge; may we suggest "Waterloo"? Meanwhile … ATT: NHL. Hedman. Landeskog. Talbot. Simmonds. Sing-off, dance-off. Ratings gold.

US loses to Slovakia 4-2 at hockey worlds (The Associated Press)
(Mon, 07 May 2012 14:46:12 PDT)
HELSINKI (AP) The United States lost to Slovakia 4-2 Monday for its first loss at hockey's world championships after opening with two victories.

Sweden beat Danes to keep perfect record
(Mon, 07 May 2012 13:55:26 PDT)
Co-hosts Sweden extended their winning streak at the world ice hockey championships by beating Denmark 6-4 in Stockholm Monday to claim three wins from as many matches.

US loses to Slovakia at hockey worlds (The Associated Press)
(Mon, 07 May 2012 13:49:27 PDT)
HELSINKI (AP) The United States lost to Slovakia 4-2 Monday for its first loss at hockey's world championships after opening with two victories.

What We Learned: Do mediocre divisions produce better Stanley Cup Playoff teams? (Puck Daddy)
(Mon, 07 May 2012 07:24:34 PDT)
Hello, this is a feature that will run through the entire season and aims to recap the weekend's events and boils those events down to one admittedly superficial fact or stupid opinion about each team. Feel free to complain about it. Occasionally you will hear that playing top teams several times a season, like those in the Atlantic and Central Divisions did this season, is a great way to prepare yourself for the postseason. They say it makes you ready to face the tougher competition in the playoffs, and by extension, those teams playing in softer divisions must logically be ill-prepared for similar rigors once the postseason rolls around. Both of the Atlantic and Central divisions were littered with 100-point teams, boasting eight of the league's 10 to eclipse the century mark between them (the other two being Boston and Vancouver), and it therefore stood to reason that they would likely send the lion's share of competitors to the conference finals. The better teams in the regular season tend to do about as well in the postseason, because they are, after all, very good teams. That makes sense. It turns out, though, that having a bunch of teams even in the neighborhood of 100 points in your division at the end of the regular season actually may be more of a detriment to a squad's postseason success. Since the lockout, only two teams have played in a Stanley Cup Final after playing in a division with three teams that managed 100 points. However, both those teams (Anaheim in 2007 and Chicago in 2010) won the Cup. If you expand that number out to even 97 points — which typically assures you a playoff berth but not home ice — only two more teams are added to the mix, the 2008 and 2009 Penguins. Conversely, teams coming out of divisions with two or fewer 97-point teams got into the Cup Finals with far greater frequency, doing so eight times since the lockout (including both Boston and Vancouver last year). But now we've seen the Los Angeles Kings advance to the Western Conference Final for the first time since 1993, and the Phoenix Coyotes stand on the precipice of doing the same for the first time since ever. Phoenix won the Pacific Division with 97 points, and is only a home ice team by virtue of its division title. Had seeding been based on points, they'd have slotted into the sixth spot. Los Angeles, meanwhile, finished with 95. The now-eliminated Sharks were sandwiched between them with 96. Three teams from one division in the playoffs, yes, but one terribly underwhelming division from which not much was expected. (Coming Up: America is a hockey superpower, thanks to Jack Johnson; Barry Trotz is wrong; Dustin Brown is awesome; Jordan Staal of Carolina; Thomas Vanek makes bank; Luongo to the Blackhawks?; Rick Dudley to the Habs; Jonathan Quick vs. Terry Sawchuck; trading Sidney Crosby; Todd McLellan-to-Calgary rumors; and the best and worst of the Capitals.)

Marc Bergevin named new Montreal Canadiens general manager (Puck Daddy)
(Tue, 01 May 2012 23:10:30 PDT)
The Montreal Canadiens have selected Chicago Blackhawks assistant GM Marc Bergevin as their new general manager, as first reported by Chris Kuc of the Chicago Tribune and later confirmed by the Canadiens, who have a 2 p.m. press conference on Wednesday. And he speaks French! Bergevin, 46, spent several seasons in the Chicago front office, including work as a scout and a stint as director of player personnel. He was an assistant coach under Joel Quenneville with the Blackhawks and played 1,191 games as an NHL defenseman from 1984-2004. One by one, the other candidates for Pierre Gauthier's old job began being eliminated this week. Francois Giguere, former Colorado Avalanche GM, was told he wasn't in the running. Toronto Maple Leafs assistant GM Claude Loiselle was also out. In the last few days, the focus has narrowed to Bergevin and NBC Sports analyst Pierre McGuire, as Michael Farber of Sports Illustrated reported they were "the only men given lengthy follow-up interviews after initial phone conversations." A bit about Bergevin from the Globe & Mail: Bergevin, a 45-year-old who was an NHL defenceman for 20 years, is known for his vast network of contacts and McGuire-esque encyclopedic knowledge of players, but he's only been an assistant GM for just over a year (he was a scout for their Cup-winning team), and as a legendary prankster and cut-up doesn't fit the gray-suit-and-milky-tea idiom of the seventh floor at the Bell Centre. While it's not the audacious pick that McGuire or Patrick Roy would have been, or the paradigm-shifting hire that a Pat Brisson (Sidney Crosby's agent) or a Julien BriseBois (the 34-year-old wiz from the Tampa Bay Lightning) would have been, Bergevin's nonetheless an interesting hire.

What We Learned: Who says Stanley Cup Playoff hockey has to be boring? (Puck Daddy)
(Mon, 30 Apr 2012 06:45:07 PDT)
Hello, this is a feature that will run through the entire season and aims to recap the weekend's events and boils those events down to one admittedly superficial fact or stupid opinion about each team. Feel free to complain about it. Watching Saturday's Capitals/Rangers game was an exercise in masochism. Sitting through that game was a test — not unlike that delivered unto Abraham — to see just how much you actually like watching hockey. Two teams playing hockey not so much against each other but rather at each other, or, to put it another way, in defiance of every hockey fan's patience. In that game, four goals were scored on 32 shots. That was between both teams, and not just one, in case you were wondering. Certainly, convention states that playoff hockey is more defensive by nature than the regular season. And though you'd be a fool to subscribe to the belief that defensive hockey is boring hockey, even the most stoic men would have been reduced to tears by the kind of temerity it takes to dare people to sit through 60 minutes of whatever that was on Saturday afternoon. But one team, at least, flatly refuses to play anything like boring hockey. That would be the Philadelphia Flyers, whose efforts have thrilled all viewers not openly supporting their opponents, and enlivened what is otherwise shaping up to be a rather drab final few rounds of the playoffs. ( Coming Up: Pierre McGuire as Habs GM; trading Patrick Marleau; Jagr vs. Brodeur; Matt Greene's unlikely goal; Predators' revenue troubles; Nail for Staal?; Landeskog graded; Columbus addresses its goalie needs; Alex Ovechkin controlled by Rangers; in praise of Danny Briere; the Winnipeg Jets are dogs; and the future of Tim Thomas.)

Eulogy: Remembering the 2011-12 Florida Panthers (Puck Daddy)
(Sat, 28 Apr 2012 07:15:01 PDT)
(Ed. Note: As the Stanley Cup Playoffs continue, we're bound to lose some friends along the journey. We've asked for these losers, gone but not forgotten, to be eulogized by the people who knew the teams best: The fans who hated them the most . This is a special edition, as Rudy Kelly from Battle of California requested the 2011-12 Florida Panthers and, well, we like Rudy Kelly. Again, this was not written by us. Also: This is a roast and you will be offended by it , so don't take it so seriously.) By Rudy Kelly I know what you're thinking: "Rudy, you're very attractive." Yes, I know, and thank you. But once you get over my beauty, you're probably wondering why I, the world's most handsome LA Kings blogger, am writing the eulogy for the Florida Panthers. I mean, why would I care about the Florida Panthers? Why would anyone? They're completely, utterly irrelevant. They're the Justin Guarini of NHL franchises. To hate them, you'd have to both be completely overflowing with hate and have a ton of free time on your hands. Luckily for you all, I'm just that man. But seriously, I hate the Panthers. Here's why …

NHL roundup: Lady Byng finalists announced (The SportsXchange)
(Mon, 23 Apr 2012 18:06:12 PDT)
Florida Panthers defenseman Brian Campbell, Edmonton Oilers forward Jordan Eberle and New York Islanders forward Matt Moulson have been named finalists for the Lady Byng Trophy, which will be presented on June 20 at the NHL Awards Show in Las Vegas.

Henrique, Landeskog and Nugent-Hopkins are finalists for Calder Trophy (The SportsXchange)
(Mon, 23 Apr 2012 13:14:25 PDT)
As a third-round pick in the 2008 NHL Entry Draft, New Jersey Devils center Adam Henrique didn't enter the 2011-12 NHL season with the same pedigree as Ryan Nugent-Hopkins or Gabriel Landeskog, who were the top two picks in last year's draft by the Edmonton Oilers and Colorado Avalanche, respectively.

Selke Trophy Finalists: David Backes vs. Patrice Bergeron vs. Pavel Datsyuk (Puck Daddy)
(Mon, 23 Apr 2012 08:57:29 PDT)
Centers David Backes of the St. Louis Blues, Patrice Bergeron of the Boston Bruins and Pavel Datsyuk of the Detroit Red Wings are the three finalists for the 2011-12 Frank J. Selke Trophy. As voted on by the Professional Hockey Writers Association, it's given to "the forward who best excels in the defensive aspects of the game." Or, in typical voter terms: "Who won the most faceoffs, who has the best plus/minus and who's due for a trophy?" Granted, many voters are digging a little deeper these days into real time stats (takeaways!) and advanced stats like quality of competition. To that end, the three finalists are worthy ones. Who wins the 2011-12 Selke?

What We Learned: End of the Red Wings and Sharks as we know them? (Puck Daddy)
(Mon, 23 Apr 2012 06:53:30 PDT)
Hello, this is a feature that will run through the entire season and aims to recap the weekend's events and boils those events down to one admittedly superficial fact or stupid opinion about each team. Feel free to complain about it. And so it was that two long-standing Western Conference powers crashed out of the 2012 Stanley Cup Playoffs, bending the knee to upstart franchises in just five games each … You might not have liked the Sharks or Red Wings in their series against the Blues and Predators, but it was very difficult to see either one crashing out in five, wasn't it? Now both find themselves at a bit of a crossroads. Detroit, of course, has been hearing "they're too old to keep doing this much longer" forever. But were it not for what even the staunchest of statsphobic old-timers would call a lucky, impossible-to-replicate home winning streak, it's difficult to get excited about the team's prospects going forward. No one on the Wings broke 70 points, and that's the first time since 2003-04 that such a thing has happened. They only had 17 road wins this season, and didn't win once at Joe Louis Arena in the playoffs. Causes for concern, certainly, made no less worrisome by the prospect of Nicklas Lidstrom hanging them up. [ Related: After first-round elimination, Sharks face uncertain future ] Make no mistake, this is an old team. Second-oldest in the league behind New Jersey, in fact. The number of players in their top-10 for scoring under the age of 30 was just three, and they weren't exactly three guys you see a guy as apparently smart as Ken Holland building a team around: Valtteri Filppula and Jiri Hudler, who played most of the year with Henrik Zetterberg, and Ian White, who took the majority of his shifts with Lidstrom. That's not to say they're not good players in their own right (well, White isn't), but they are complementary players, and guys like Zetterberg would still succeed regardless of who played with them. They also have few particularly tantalizing prospects (the result of a decade or so of drafting pretty poorly) and Lidstrom, with his career very obviously on its last legs, simply cannot be the rough-and-ready warhorse at both ends of the ice he has been in the past, and the prospect of Niklas Kronwall playing any more minutes than he already does has to be concerning to anyone who watched this Nashville series. [ Related: Preds make Stanley Cup statement by eliminating Red Wings ] Now, none of this is to say that the Wings didn't carry long stretches of their playoff games, and outshoot Nashville significantly in three of the five. They did. But as the series wore on, they also often appeared baffled with how to handle the looks a line led by Martin Erat was giving them, and didn't do a very good job of silencing anyone over the course of five games. ( Coming Up : It's Claude Giroux's world, we just live in it; the end of the Pens; Marty Brodeur is old; Mike Cammalleri gets his sweater; hoping for a Nicklas Lidstrom retirement; the Islanders probably aren't Brooklyn bound; the Coyotes and Blackhawks play a lot of overtime games; Cam Ward is charitable; the Rangers can't score; Tyler Seguin is pretty good; Emerson Etem ignites; and a trade to get Roberto Luongo to Tampa Bay.)