Former NHL player Kevin Miller ordered to pay $1.1 million for career ending hit

Back on October 31, 2000,former NHL player Kevin Miller landed a hit on Canadian hockey player Andrew McKim in a game in Switzerland. The hit eventually ended the career of McKim and will cost Miller $1.1 million. Miller previously refused to pay the fine.

A federal judge upheld a Swiss court's judgement against Miller after Allianz Suisse Versicherungs-Gesellschaft, a Swiss insurance company that covered McKim, filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids to enforce the judgment it obtained in Switzerland in 2010.

Miller played for HC Davos in the Switzerland National Hockey League. During the game against the ZSC Lions, he hit McKim from behind, a check that resulted in a five-minute penalty and a playing-time disciplinary penalty. McKim fell forward on the ice which resulted in a concussion and other injuries.

On Dec. 10, 2004, the prosecutor’s office of the Canton of Zurich charged Miller with malicious simple bodily injury and grievous bodily injury. The trial, at which Miller testified, began the following August.

“Miller admitted that he checked McKim, injuring him ‘at least lightly,’ but denied his actions resulted in the serious injuries that McKim sustained when he hit his head on the ice,”U.S. District Judge Gordon Quist wrote in his 17-page opinion.

“In concluding that Miller was responsible for the damages resulting from the ‘check,’ the judge observed that Miller must have recognized that he could not have made a legal body check on McKim, that Miller had sufficient time to avoid the improper contact with McKim, and that Miller must have known of the risk that he could inflict serious injury on McKim with contact from behind.”

Keep in mind McKim was not the one that filed suit. It was the Swiss insurance company that wanted to recover the costs paid out to McKim.

Red Wings Helm and Tatar could face eviction for loud noise

A pair of Detroit Red Wings forwards appear to be in hot water with their condo association.

According to the Detroit News, Tomas Tatar and Darren Helm are named in a lawsuit claiming they must comply with the Main Street Lofts Condominium Association's rules or else they'll be forced to "vacate premises."

The eviction threat is in relation to a number of noise complaints filed by neighbors, which date back to October 2013.

Loud music, yelling and banging can often be heard coming from the third-floor unit in which Tatar is the tenant of and Helm co-owns, neighbors allege. The noise tends to occur between midnight and 4 a.m. "up to four nights a week."

Additionally, Tatar is alleged to have routinely parked his vehicle in parking spaces inside the condominium's parking structure which are designated only for short-term guest parking.

Both Tatar, 23, and 27-year-old Helm, are regulars in the Red Wings lineup.

Tatar is enjoying a breakout season, having racked up 18 goals 34 points over 64 games.

Helm has recorded 13 points in 33 games. He's been injured for much of the campaign.

Ottawa Senators accuse Detroit Red Wings of diving

The Ottawa Senators got the best of a reeling Detroit Red Wings team Saturday night,4-2, but the win didn't stop Senators players from being critical of the Red Wings.

Senators goaltender Robin Lehner accused the Red Wings of diving, that contributed to the Red Wings having 5 on 3 advantages on four separate occasions.

“After the first 10 minutes, when we didn’t play very well, I thought the guys really picked it up,” said Lehner. “We have to be a little bit more disciplined. We had a few too many penalties, some of them were soft.

“It’s tough on the (officials). I don't think it's their fault. It’s like there was water out there with how much they were diving. I think we’ve just got to take the positives and go to the next game.”

“We don’t want to give up three or four 5-on-3s. I don’t know if their skate sharpener was broken over there or what? There was a couple where they went down pretty easy,” Ottawas's Clarke MacArthur said, according to the Ottawa Sun’s Bruce Garrioch.

Both teams had a high number of power plays so it's almost pointless to accuse a team of diving. The Senators should take the win and stop complaining.

Report: Federov coming out of retirement to play for KHL team

Reports from Russia say that former Detroit Red Wings star Sergei Federov will come out of retirement to play for his KHL team.

According to Pavel Lysenkov of Russia’s Sovietsky Sport, Fedorov will play Friday. Federov is the general manager for CSKA Moscow and has apparently signed himself to a one year contract. The team is currently 5-3-0-7 and is in seventh place in the KHL West.

Federov was named general manager in 2012 after he retired.

Chris Chelios to rent out his Malibu home

You might not be able to play like Hall of Fame defenseman Chris Chelios, but now you can live like him.

The former Red Wings defenseman has put his Malibu, Calif., house up for rent.

According to realty.com, the house, which has unobstructed ocean views and a guest house, rents for $25,000 per month if you take it for a year.

If you only want the house to enjoy the summer months, it goes for $40,000 per month.

The listing reads:

Unobstructed ocean views from Point Dume to Palos Verdes. This is the best location in Malibu within the prestigious Paradise Cove area with the sandiest beach. Located behind gates on the sand with a main house and a detached guest house.

Chelios was named as an analyst for Fox Sports 1 and will be covering 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.

Lidstrom tells Red Wings he's retired

The NHL lockout has came to an end and all there's left to do is to finalize all the details in the agreement. Expect a flurry of player movement before the start of the shortened. Also players will have to get themselves  into shape pretty quick.

The Detroit Red Wings aren't going to be the force they were for the better part of the last decade. Age, injuries and retirement have made the Red Wings more reliant on younger, unproven players. That explains why head coach Mike Babcock spoke to recently retired defenseman, Nicklas Lidstrom, to gauge his interest in returning for a shortened 48 game run this season.  


"First off, this is all a little blown out of proportion," Babcock said. "But we got to talking and I was asking Nick how his family was, how he was enjoying himself, and he said he was having a great time.

"He said he has been going to some (Swedish) Elite games recently, and it had gotten his blood racing again. But not to the point where he would be interested in putting his equipment on again.

"I just stopped it right there," Babcock said, laughing.

Lidstrom spent his entire 20 year career in Detroit.

With Lidstrom gone and Brad Stuart no longer in the mix and missing out on some of the top free agents the Red Wings could be in for a long season. Even if it is only for 48 games.

Sergei Federov to become GM of Russian hockey club

According to a report in Sovetsky Sport, former Detroit Red Wing star Sergei Federov will retire from the game of hockey and concentrate on being a general manager for CSKA Moscow of the Kontinental Hockey League.

Federov will play in one more game before assuming the duties of general manager next season.

"It's a great possibility that CSKA's first home game of the new season will be Sergei's farewell. It will be sort of a farewell celebration and he will concentrate on the management work at the club."



The highly skilled Fedorov defected from the Soviet Union in 1990 and helped the Red Wings win three Stanley Cup championships in 13 seasons in Detroit. He ranks fourth on the club's career list for goals (400) and fifth in points (954).


He is the last Red Wing to win the Hart Trophy as the NHL's most valuable player in 1993-94 and is a two-time winner of the Selke Trophy as the league top defensive forward.


CSKA hasn't yet confirmed the report and Federov has yet to make his retirement official.

Todd Bertuzzi enforces ping pong laws

It’s been an extremely physical NHL playoffs thus far as bitter rivalries continue like what we’ve seen between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia and develop like what we’ve seen with the New York Rangers and Ottawa.

Red Wings fans also need to look no further than their own series with the Nashville Predators which got pretty ugly when Shea Weber decided to introduce Zetterberg’s face to the glass. This continued the following game when Todd Bertuzzi decided to get Zetterberg and himself some retribution when he dropped the gloves with the big Nashville defenseman.

But Bertuzzi doesn’t limit his enforcement skills to the ice, he’s also taking it to the locker rooms and under belly of The Joe Louis Arena.

In between the locker rooms at The Joe, the Wings have set up a ping-pong table to enjoy during off days as well as before and after practices (last I hear Darren Helm is the team’s ping-pong champion). However according to the Detroit Free Press, this is a ping-pong table that is strictly off-limits to the likes of the Nashville Predators and Bertuzzi is going to make sure it stays that way.


“I came out of our room, saw some of their guys wanting to play on our Ping Pong tables and told security,” Bertuzzi told the Free Press. “I didn’t do anything else. I didn’t move the table myself.”

Rumors that Bertuzzi had personally packed up the table and wheeled it away swirled around the morning skates today. The Wings host the Predators in Game 4 looking to even the first-round series. No one among the Wings had heard of Ping Pong Gate, but greeted it with delight.

The Free Press report further more states that Predators forward Brandon Yip confirmed that Bertuzzi was not around when he and Roman Josi were denied the opportunity to play Ping Pong by arena security at Joe Louis Arena on Monday.


“I don’t know where that came from,” Yip said of Bertuzzi being involved. “He wasn’t out there.”

Red Wings' Helm out for playoffs

The Detroit Red Wings got word Thursday that forward Darren Helm would be lost for the remainder of the season after undergoing successful surgery to repair lacerated tendons on his right forearm.

Helm suffered the injury when he was cut by the skate of Nashville’s Alexander Radulov in the first period of Wednesday night’s Western Conference quarterfinals.

“He’s an important guy,” Red Wings general manager Ken Holland said. “I’m disappointed for Darren because he worked real hard to be back for the playoffs.


“He plays with tremendous passion and determination. I know how much he loves this game. It’s a big loss, but that’s playoff hockey.”

The injury is without a doubt a big loss for Detroit who relies heavily on Helm’s speed and fore checking ability, especially on the power play. It’s also ironic considering Helm was injured off the skate of a player in Radulov who many have questioned whether or not he should even be playing for Nashville given he just completed a season in the KHL.

Helm is expected to make a full recovery and be ready for the beginning of next season.

With Helm being gone, Babcock will more than likely move Justin Abdelkader up to the third line center, move Emmerton back down to fourth line center and insert either Gustav Nyquist or Chris Connor in the lineup Friday night.

It's Good To Be Picked Last

Usually when someone gets picked last in a game on the playground, or anywhere else for that matter, is a bad thing. Except if your the Toronto Maple Leafs' Phil Kessel. Kessel received a car for being picked last with the 36th pick in the first NHL fantasy draft for the All Star Game.

Carolina Hurricanes goalie Cam Ward was the first pick by Team Staal, teammate Eric Staal. Kessel was picked by Team Lidstrom, captained by Detroit Red Wings defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom. If I knew that hockey paid well and gave away cars I would've took up the sport as a kid.    

Islanders Block Red Wings For Nabokov

The New York Islanders placed a claim on free agent goalie Evgeni Nabokov which blocked the Detroit Red Wings' one year deal with the 35 year old goalie.

Nabokov hasn't reported to the Islanders which leaves them with the option of suspending him without pay or putting him back on waivers. If I'm the Islanders, I put him on waivers because you know he doesn't want to go to play for that crap squad in Long Island.

I'm no hockey honk or anything like that, but why did the Islanders sign him? They aren't going anywhere and haven't since the 1980's. I know you guys have goalie problems with injuries and all right now, but you're nowhere close to winning anything and having Nabokov aboard makes no sense. If you were close it's a good pickup. The Isles haven't contended for anything in over 20 years.

Chris Osgood echoes my sentiment. "The Islanders are terrible so I'm not sure why they did that," Osgood said.

Probert passes at age 45

Former NHL and Detroit Red Wing tough guy, Bob Probert passed away today in Ontario at age 45.  Probert played 16 seasons in the NHL for the Red Wings and Chicago Blackhawks.

Probert collapsed on a boat in Lake St. Clair and crews performed CPR before he was transported to Windsor Regional Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Probert was a key member in the rise of the Red Wings in the mid 80s, until he ran into off ice troubles,mostly fighting a drug and alcohol problems. Locally the fans in Detroit always had a soft spot for him despite his troubles and playing for the hated Blackhawks. Probert also was known as one of the toughest men to play the game during that time. Everyone that knew him, says he was a great guy and the fans in Detroit could identify with him. Its sad to hear of his passing.