Kirk Maltby News

Another link to the classic Red Wings-Avalanche rivalry is gone. It was bad enough when Patrick Roy, Steve Yzerman, Claude Lemieux and Darren McCarty were skating off the scene, retiring, and taking so much emotion with them.

Hockey's Future's Glen Erickson offers an interesting take on Red Wings prospect Mitchell Callahan in his review of the WHL's drafted players, noting that the Wings see more than pugilism in the 5'11," 175-lb. winger --and noting that the Wings had more than enough chances to watch Callahan play as the Rockets both won the Western Hockey League ...

The Oakland Press's Pat Caputo doled out the party line on Tuesday afternoon... July 1, The Oakland Press : Red Wings' worst value for a contract next season: Tomas Holmstrom at $2.25 million.

After leading the Red Wings with 40 goals in the regular season last year, Marian Hossa is headed to division rival Chicago.

With juicy rumours , Sportsnet's Mike Brophy and Mark Spector assessed the needs of the NHL's Eastern and Western Conference teams, respectively, and Spector voiced what has become a common refrain--more and more people have suggested that they fully expect the Red Wings to engage in whatever salary cap gymnastics are necessary to keep Marian Hossa ...

So close. Losing in Game Seven of the Stanley Cup Final may have been heartbreaking for the Detroit Red Wings, but they have built up a nucleus that promises to contend for the championship for the forseeable future.

Even without Sidney Crosby for most of the game, the skilled and youthful Pittsburgh Penguins could not be kept from the Stanley Cup.

The Red Wings, according to the Macomb Daily's Bruce MacLeod, had a rather pedestrian morning skate.

With the Red Wings' season at a close, the Free Press's Red Wings correspondents weighed in with memories, both good and bad, of the 2008-2009 season.

A quick note for those of you who believe that Kris Draper, Kirk Maltby, and Tomas Holmstrom "have to go"... RedWingsCentral's salary cap calculator feature from Capgeek.com notes that, if Jiri Hudler, Mikael Samuelsson, Tomas Kopecky, and Marian Hossa all leave .

"The Huge Blog's" Bill Simonson remains baffled as to why Red Wings coach Mike Babcock chose to scratch Justin Abdelkader after Games 1 and 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals: June 15, MLive.com : If I can find negatives in a great team effort for seven games by the Red Wings it would be that the young guns needed more ice time in the finals.

What follows is a partial survey of the multimedia offerings available to Red Wings fans after the Pittsburgh Penguins' 2-1 win over the Detroit Red Wings in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals.

Defending the Stanley Cup is even harder than most Red Wings fans thought. That became readily apparent after Detroit won the first two games of this year's Stanley Cup Final at home, but lost four of the next five to surrender the Cup to the Pittsburgh Penguins following a 2-1 setback in Game 7 Friday night at Joe Louis Arena.

Two stars, two generations, two captains joined together by one Stanley Cup that took some bad teams and the good drafts that followed them, a tremendous comeback and one unlikely Game 7 goal scorer to accomplish.

Knowing that his team was playing in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final last night lifted Petr Sykora's spirits and made him forget that he might have played his last game for the Penguins.

Someone is going to be a hero. That someone might not be the someone you'd think.

Detroit Red Wings centre Kris Draper, seen practising earlier in the Stanley Cup final series, has a chance for a fifth Stanley Cup ring.

The consolation for the Detroit Red Wings is that at least they will get to play Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final at home.

It was another whiteout at Mellon Arena for Game 6 of the Stanley Cup final, but the fans outside had to deal with a blackout.

Marian Hossa finally has his chance to say I told you so to the boo-birds at Mellon Arena.