Red Wings Make Qualifying Offers to Nine Players

According to Ansar Khan, the Detroit Red Wings have made qualifying offers to nine restricted free agents -- five regulars at the big club and four Griffins. From mlive:

The Detroit Red Wings made qualifying offers to nine players before Monday’s deadline, retaining their rights when they become restricted free agents Thursday.

In addition to making qualifying offers, as expected, to Darren Helm, Justin Abdelkader, Patrick Eaves, Drew Miller and Derek Meech, the Red Wings also qualified defensemen Sergei Kolosov and Ole-Kristian Tollefsen, forward Jamie Tardif and goaltender Daniel Larsson.

The article also notes that this means the Red Wings have decided to allow Evan McGrath and Johan Ryno to leave as unrestricted free agents.

For Tolefsson and Larsson, the offers are just to retain the rights to the players as both are headed to Europe to continue their careers. The others are all likely to be re-signed and would probably take up around $3.5m+ cap space; which would leave $1.7m for further signings and/or trades.

Bertuzzi Offered Two-Year Deal

According to Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press, Ken Holland has made an offer to unrestricted free agent Todd Bertuzzi for a two-year contract as well as making qualifying offers to the Wings restricted free agents:

The Wings have offered a two-year deal to unrestricted free-agent forward Todd Bertuzzi. They also have extended qualifying offers to all five of their restricted free agents: forwards Patrick Eaves, Drew Miller, Justin Abdelkader and Darren Helm and defenseman Derek Meech. There have been some preliminary talks with the agents for Eaves and Miller. Eaves, Miller and Meech all have arbitration rights.

Bertuzzi's deal is expected to be a small discount to last season's 1-year/$1.5m agreement in light of the added security of a multi-year deal -- one that Bertuzzi hasn't has since Brian Burke and the Anaheim Ducks bought him out of the second and final year of his 2-year contract in 2008. Any financial details of the offer are, at this stage, just speculation and the Bertuzzi's agent is still yet to confim an agreement.

Wings MUST Win!... Game 3 Preview

Wings must win.

Pretty simple.

Things probably won't change much for either team except for the possible return of Patrick Eaves who is still questionable. If the Wings can stay out of the box and avoid 5-on-3's, logic would suggest they can get their first win and start to get back in the series.

Scary Pair #1 is Hank and Bert. They've played a lot of time 5-on-5 together this season and continue to do so during the playoffs with Valtteri Filppula. Their line has gone fairly cold against the Sharks and will need to re-ignite to their First Round form to help the Wings get their maiden win of the series. The pair averaged a hook-up once every 40 or so minutes so hopefully they're due for another in Game 3.

The second Scary Pair is Homer and Das Mule. Ever since Franzen's return from injury they've hooked up 7 times, more than any other tandem on the team over that period. They hooked up for a PP goal in Game Two but some more of that magic is sorely needed at even strength.

Red Wings Finish 5th with Gutsy Win over 'Hawks

A solid OT road win over possibly the league's best all-round team is a great way to sum up the Red Wings finish to the 2009/2010 regular season.

After trailing 1-0 after the first from an ugly, very playoff-like powerplay goal from the Blackhawks Dave Bolland, Detroit kept their sticks on the ice as they defended against the formidable Chicago attack whilst countering with some offense of their own.

Patrick Eaves tied the game up in the second and a Tomas Holmstrom tip on Brian Rafalski's blueline drive in the third gave the Red Wings a 2-1 lead as the "De-troit sucks!" chants had a rare silencing at the United Center.

The playoff-like defense continued as the Wings defended their modest lead with success but the skate of the red-hot Colin Fraser was too much to stop, tying it up only 3 minutes later.

The Wings were forced to kill off one more penalty with 2:32 left on the clock to earn the point keep them above the Predators, but the Kings overtime win in Denver moments earlier meant Detroit needed a second point to take 5th-place and a first-round match-up against the Coyotes.

The free-flowing OT period lasted only 3:11 as Brad Stuart ended the regular seasons for both teams with just his 4th goal of the season, capping off the Wings amazing finish to the season with a 3-2 overtime win, and a 15-2-2 run.

Additional bonus: No Conference title for Chicago. Unlucky!!

Special Teams

Today's game was a rare one, where Detroit took more penalties than their opponents. Detroit went 0/2 on their opportunities while keeping the 'Hawks to 1/4 after giving up a PP goal only 11 seconds into the first man-advantage of the game.

In Net

- Jimmy Howard had another great performance, capping off a 15-1-2 end to his regular season. Howard made 27 saves for the Wings including 16 in the middle frame, keeping the Wings in the game.

- Antti Niemi stopped 18 of 21 Detroit shots on goal, finishing his magnificent rookie season with a 26-7-4 record.

Up Next...

The Phoenix Coyotes in the Stanley Cup Playoffs!!!

Red Wings vs. Oilers Preview

The Red Wings hope to get their first win against the lowly, last-placed Edmonton Oilers in their final match-up of the season.

Amazingly, the Oilers are the one team in the league the Wings have had the most difficult time beating.

“We get beat like a rented mule,” coach Mike Babcock said. “They just slap us around every time we play them. We’re usually down two after about six minutes. So we’re hoping they’re going to let us touch the puck tomorrow.”

A win for Detroit will give the Wings 6th-place in the West trailing the Predators for fifth by one point with a game in hand.