Don’t think that quote isn’t for you, Chris

On By mpetrella
“It’s great, isn’t it? It’s called goaltending.”

-Mike Babcock, following the Red Wings/Penguins game, in which Jimmy Howard stopped 46 shots for the second game in a row. Over the weekend, the team earned three points and Howard stopped 96.8% shots he faced.

Mike Babcock isn’t squeaky clean in this ordeal. No one liked when Chris Osgood opened his mouth, and I think the difference is Babcock’s claims are backed up… by a third party. If Jimmy Howard wasn’t playing as well as he is, Uncle Mike would look incredibly petty and vindictive. Instead, he looks right. Them’s the breaks.

OTHER NEWS AND NOTES
Babcock’s shootout order for the Penguins game was Jason Williams, Pavel Datsyuk, and Valtteri Filppula, theoretically saving Henrik Zetterberg and Todd Bertuzzi for extra innings. Interesting, I suppose, but as noted by our intelligent (and handsome/beautiful) readers, Zetterberg kinda sucks in the shootout (to the tune of 22%). I can’t say I agree with his selected trio, and Babbles has made some questionable shootout calls lately, but obviously he knows his shooters better than I do.

Tomas Holmstrom is back tomorrow, finally banishing Brad May to the press box. Did anyone else die a little when May skated across Pittsburgh’s blue line, stopped, and promptly fell down losing possession? Oy.

Johan Franzen returns next Tuesday, the 9th, in St. Louis — three games before the Olympic break.

CAPOLOGY
When Homer and Mulo come back, the Red Wings will be about $745,000 over the cap (although, I’m not exactly clear on the exact rules regarding LTIR relief as it applies to the cap when those players return). They will also be one player over the 23-man limit (and will have fifteen forwards). Obviously, something will have to give. When Lilja returns, two bodies will have to move, as will nearly $2 million.

The Wings have long felt they can carry 22 guys instead of the maximum 23, and that’s something they’ll have to do when all the bodies return to sneak under the cap.

  • The obvious first guy to go is Brad May. But he only removes $500,000 from the cap. Waive him and send him down. I will piss my pants if anyone picks him up. 
  • I think Brett Lebda is moved before Derek Meech because A) he’s more expensive (though, not by much), B) Meech is a forward in a pinch, and C) Meech doesn’t seem to care that he’s in the press box more than he’s on the ice. I made a promise last week, that if we could get a second round draft pick for Brett Lebda, I’d do a backflip and videotape it for you folks. Hint: I can’t do a backflip. There will be injuries.
After these two moves, the Wings are at the 23-body limit, but still find themselves around 850k over. The following guys don’t make that much, thereby not alleviating the pressure:
  • Ville Leino (800k)
  • Darren Helm (599k – thank the Christ)
  • Drew Miller (525k)
  • Patrick Eaves (500k)
Kirk Maltby makes 883k, making him an actual option to be moved. I don’t like it, because I love him, but he’s in the final year of his contract and it’s extraordinarily unlikely that he’ll get re-signed in July. He’s a life and death Red Wing, so he’s the kind of guy that I can see working within the organization after he decides to hang ’em up, but maybe he’s not there yet. He’s 37, still has legs and a jaw (his two best qualities over two decades), and is a near-legendary penalty killer. You can’t tell me there aren’t teams out there that would benefit from having Kirk Maltby. I have to wonder if he’d be open to a move, considering he’ll very likely find himself in healthy scratch territory here in a little bit. 
I chart the healthy scratches during the season (nerd alert!). Maltby has been scratched five times this season: the first two were in October, when Johan Franzen first became injured, proving that he’s near (or at) the bottom of the depth chart.