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f*** pronger

Hurdler's favorite move is to leap over the goalie.

I would say its more the fact that they thought there was no way they would give up the lead so they stoped playing the last 10 minutes of the game.

Z is going to have an awesome year simply and primarily because he is genuinely awesome himself.

Give the people what they want! Datsyuk Datsyuk Datsyuk esteef

It makes sense. The reverse of 9 or 09 is 90. Boom! 3 imaginary points!

Yep. All about playing a full 60 minutes. More mental than anything.

Octopi are amazing creatures. They can replicate color, shape and texture to their surroundings. They make camelions look like amateurs at blending in. I also hear they are relatively good at picking soccer teams.

s*** just got real.

Not really Helm related, but I was so excited when I saw this news (not that it's terribly surprising...) that I bought my yearly new Red Wings hat a bit early this year! Just ordered this bad boy!

You mean more like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ii-08G6C6wI

We can't have the best of both worlds. The salary cap has prevented that. Spending money on Modano does lessen the amount of cash we'd have to spend on defensemen, which is not a position we're deep at. I don't understand why a Cleary/Helm/Hudler line wasn't enough for people to be happy? Apparently we also needed to sign Modano.

yessss!!!!

Franzen - 41 Zetterberg - 35 Datsyuk - 30 Hudler - 25 Holmstrom - 24 Filppula - 23 Bertuzzi - 21 Modano - 17 Cleary - 17 Those are just my predictions. If those hold true, that would mean the following for our forward lines: First Line - 84 goals Second Line - 85 goals Third Line - 59 goals Not bad at all. That isn't even counting our defensemen. Gretzky's records aren't safe!!!

So pumped for this season.

My predictions: Zetterberg 46 Franzen 42 Dats 38 Hudler 30 Homer 25 Flip 23 Bertuzzi 23 Cleary 21

I smell a "what if Modano had retired" at the end of the stanley cup next year.

Modano is a nice option because he actually shoots it a bury it most of the times

oh and btw, hopefully this team won't go into 15 shootouts or something like last year

Kronwall sure looked like a forward in his attempt last year.

Looks good.

Isn't hudler alot like cleary with the fake and then goes backhand?

its kinda funny that our 3rd line at the start of last season was Leino, Filppula, Williams... and this year it is Hudler, Modano, Cleary... so weve basically replaced Leino and Williams with Modano and Hudler! thats an INCREDIBLE improvement... yes I know Leino was good for Philly after he left here but he was absolutely HORRIBLE when he was here so this is a drastic improvement be about it...

Howe taking out Pronger would warm my heart. Let's see... Lilja returns to the Wings and has a great season. Someone finally tells Pierre that he's creepy and needs to back off in an interview. If they say, "Quit rubbing your dick on my shorts." on live TV, I will be their fan for life unless it's Pronger or another untouchable. Tampa wins the Cup by beating the Wings, which causes Wings fans to experience such a paradoxical situation that LGW disbands for the summer so that we can all get extensive therapy. The Canadian government reveals the results of a super-secret DNA project from the 80's and 90's wherein they took DNA from the best to create the Ultimate Hockey Player. Excitement dies down when "Wayne" -as he is called- proves to have the hands of Bill Clement, the pugilistic skills of Wayne Gretzky, the masculinity of Pierre McGuire, the face of Mike Ricci, the speed of Derian Hatcher, and the singing talent of Darren McCarty. Someone spells Valtteri Filppula right.

As stated before it's all about the $$$$. Pittsburgh and Washington have the two fastest growing "New" fan bases out there right now. Their merchandise sales are sky rocketing, and when you're looking at Revenue the long term numbers involve getting new fair weather fans....and making them stay fans for the long haul. A team like Detroit has an already established fanbase, so it's not going to fluctuate up or down too much regardless. No point in catering to Detroit when there's hotter markets out there. Teams like say....the Wild....well nobody cares less....so you end up with three types of teams. 1) Those who have fan bases that won't change too much (Detroit, Toronto, etc) 2) Those who have little fan base...and simply aren't worth making a big ticket out of (Minn, Atlanta, etc) 3) Those with fresh new up and coming fan bases, willing to spend a ton of money to support their newfound passion. (pittsburgh, Washington) I Remember in 97-98....every single car in Detroit had a redwings flag (or 4) out the window. If you went to the mall 1/3rd of the shirts people were wearing were red and white, or a full out jersey. Hell, even I Had Detroit bumper stickers on my car, owned 3-4 Jersey's, and even a Redwings coffee mug. Back then 99% of us were just becoming Redwings fans because our team was doing well. Three finals appearances in a row, a record breaking 96 season....most of us were the lame fans that we now see springing up all over Pittsburgh and Washington. But we made the league a lot of money ;-p And while the fan craze surged during those years.....many of us remained fans over the long haul....and the 'Hockey' atmosphere that has been created in Michigan attracts new hockey fans with every generation. That's the NHL's goal with these up and coming teams right now.....to build a fanbase that will be self sufficient ten years from now, because god knows if they don't nurse the hell out of Washington and Pittsburgh.....most of their fans won't last through a bad year. Remember....the Caps became ultra popular in 98 as well, right up until Detroit swept them out of the finals. Suddenly....a bad year for them the following year...and poof, Caps fell off the planet for fan base. To get fans, you have to win. To keep a fan base....you have to take those fair weather fans, and make them into real hockey fans...and that takes years to accomplish. In Detroit we lucked out with a good team for about 20 years straight now, but I doubt we'll see Pittsburgh and Washington making the playoffs for the next 20 years, so from a marketing standpoint pitting Ovechkin against Crosby in a highly publicized game is kinda genius.....even if it is a little bit ***. Side thought: How funny would it be if both of them were injured for the Winter Classic, lol. What a kick in the balls that would be to Bettman.