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LetsGoWings.com Official Game Day Thread VS. Start time: 7:00 EST XCel Energy Center - St. Paul, MN Available On: Tonight's Stream http://www.letsgowings.com/forums/index.php/user/15741-drumnj/ (Directions in profile) Official Game Preview: Wild to host West's best Red Wings *Opposition GDT* From MinnesotaWild.com Around the NHL Ovechkin packs for the road Heinz Field web cam Planning means shooting for more Western Conference Standings 1. Detroit Red Wings........................34 GP, 21-9-4, 46 pts 2. Dallas Stars................................35 GP, 21-10-4, 46 pts 3. Vancouver Caucks.......................33 GP, 20-8-5, 45 pts 4. San Jose Sharks.........................35 GP, 19-11-5, 43 pts 5. Colorado Avalanche...................35 GP, 19-12-4, 42 pts 6. Los Angeles Kings.....................33 GP, 20-12-1, 41 pts 7. Chicago Blackhawks..................36 GP, 19-14-3, 41 pts 8. Nashville Predators....................34 GP, 17-11-6, 40 pts ----------------------------------------- 9. Anaheim Ducks.........................38 GP, 18-16-4, 40 pts 10. St. Louis Blues..........................34 GP, 17-12-5, 39 pts 11. Phoenix Coyotes.......................33 GP, 15-11-7, 37 pts 12. Columbus Blue Jackets..............34 GP, 17-14-3, 37 pts 13. Minnesota Wild..........................33 GP, 16-13-4, 36 pts 14. Calgary Flames..........................36 GP, 15-18-3, 33 pts 15. Edmonton Oilers.......................33 GP, 12-15-6, 30 pts RED WINGS 34 GP, 21-9-4, 46 pts Last Game: Lost to STL 4-3 WILD 33 GP, 16-13-4, 36 pts Last Game: Defeated COL 4-1 Last DET-MIN Meeting: 11/19, MIN 4 at DET 3 (OT) Recap - LGW GDT Highlights Goals DET Dan Cleary, Johan Franzen: 15 MIN Brent Burns, Cal Clutterbuck: 9 Assists DET Pavel Datsyuk: 27 MIN Martin Havlat: 22 Plus/Minus DET Justin Abdelkader: +10 MIN Mikko Koivu: +4 ---- DET Jiri Hudler: -8 MIN John Madden: -12 PIM DET Tomas Holmstrom: 38 MIN Brent Burns: 41 Franzen-Zetterberg-Holmstrom Cleary-Filppula-Bertuzzi Hudler-Abdelkader-Miller Draper-Helm-Eaves Lidstrom-Stuart Ericsson-Rafalski Kronwall-Kindl Projected MIN Lines Brunette-Koivu-Kobasew Bouchard-Brodziak-Havlat O'Sullivan-Cullen-Miettinen Clutterbuck-Madden-Nystrom Zanon-Zidlicky Scandella-Burns Spurgeon-Stoner Jimmy Howard Record: 18-6-2, 2.67 GAA, .911 SV%, 2 SO ---- versus. ---- Niklas Backstrom Record: 12-8-3, 2.52 GAA, .922V%, 1 SO RED WINGS Pavel Datsyuk (broken wrist) out, Mike Modano (severed tendon) out ---- WILD Cam Barker (personal) out, Nick Schultz (upper body) doubtful, James Sheppard (knee) out, Guillaume Latendresse (groin) out, Josh Harding (torn ACL) out On Deck 12/27, Red Wings at Avalanche; 9:00 PM

Horrific line IMO. Franzen-Zeterberg-Holmstrom Hudler-Filppula-Eaves Cleary-Abdelkader-Bertuzzi Draper-Helm-Miller Just don't like Bert with Flip, they don't make anything happen.

They're talking about rain and 40 degrees around here New Year's Day. I hate to be mean, but I'd laugh my ass off if it poured rain in Pittsburgh that day. It would be poetic justice.

That's really awesome.

I think Ozzy still has what it takes to be a starter.. Yes, his stats are sub-par for a 3-time cup winner... But it's hard getting into a groove when only getting 1-2 starts a month!

honestly i want to see what ilari can do. hudler doesn't offer much at either end of the ice and at this point (no dats) we can't afford to have guys blatantly floating out there. he is wasting good ice time and racking up the minuses. Roll with this: Franzen-Zetterberg-Holmstrom I.Filppula-V.Filppula-Cleary Bertuzzi-Abdelkader-Eaves Draper-Helm-Miller

...Hater...

You two seem a little confused about what I was saying. Zetterberg PPG Regular season: 0.95 PPG Playoffs: 0.94 Crosby PPG Regular: 1.39 PPG playoffs: 1.32 Malkin PPG regular: 1.21 PPG playoffs: 1.18 Getzlaf PPG regular: 0.94 PPG playoffs: 0.84 Filppula PPG regular: 0.45 PPG playoffs: 0.55 You'll notice that Flip is the only one of those five whose playoff PPG is higher than their regular season PPG. While the other four are certainly much better players, they are also paid much more. Flip also has the best point/cap hit in the playoffs of all those players. You also seem to have a very misguided notion of what a second line center is supposed to be. Last year, there were 57 centers who scored 40 or more points. There were 25 who scored 60 or more. Only 53 forwards who scored 60 or more. 40+ points IS a decent second line NHL center. Malkin is not the standard for a good second line center. 60+ points pretty much means first line talent. On a Cup caliber team, the standards are higher of course, but that is less an indictment of Flip than it is praise of the Wings. He is certainly no worse than the 5th best forward on the team, and I think it's pretty close between him and Cleary for that spot. Flip's detractors seem to think he either needs to be a consistent scorer or relegated to the third line. The truth is if he could consistently produce points the way he does when he's 'on', that would pretty much make him Datsyuk/Zetterberg, and he'd be commanding twice the salary, and thus playing for another team. You can't compare him to Zetterberg and other superstar players. But some people seem to be under the impression that Flip has to be at that level to be considered valuable. Another thing people complain about how long we've been waiting for Flip to break out, as if certain fans' unrealistic expections determine how successful a player is. A couple years ago, people expected a lot from Flip. People also expected him to center a second line with Franzen and Hossa. Considering he spent the majority of the year centering the third line with Hudler and Sammy, with minimal PP time, 40 points in 80 games WAS a lot. Put him in the top 200 in PPG, top 160 in points, among forwards...fringe 2nd line territory. People expected a lot last year. But who expected him to spend a third of the season out with injury and another third playing with the likes of Leino (Detroit version), Williams, Miller, Abby, etc. Despite that, he was still top 170 in points, and top 120 in PPG. Solidly 2nd line production. In one 31 game stretch after he came back from his injury, he scored 27 points. 31 games is pretty long to be considered an aberrant streak. That's a protracted run of top-line caliber production. The only way you can complain about anything prior to this season is if you ignore circumstance or have insanely unrealistic standards. The guy has real talent offensively. Easily a 2nd-liner by league-wide standards. While his point totals are a bit disappointing thus far this season, people really need to stop judging him by an all-star standard. Need to realize that players like him are going to be streaky and inconsistent scorers, thus why he makes $3M instead of $6M. Realize that a few good games, like the 8 points in 3 games he had last year, would bump him right up close to the 60 point pace people think he should be at. I would trade him for a ~35+ goal scorer in a heartbeat, because the team needs someone like that a lot more than we need someone like Flip. But I'm not going to rag on the kid for not being something he's neither expected to be, nor is paid to be.

Relative to talent, Eaves is outplaying (or at least out-producing) everyone except Cleary and maybe Homer.

Eaves outplaying huds, flip and bert Eaves to 2nd line yupppp

i remember when the season first started, flip had like 890 shots per game. then for some reason, he quit shooting. now im not saying they were 100% quality shots, but you put the puck at the net and things happen. i'd love to see eaves line w/ flip

Mindfly being positive? You've been awarded one Schrute buck.

Re-sign Eaves to a multi-year deal? Yes please.

If you hook/hold/etc. another player, it's a penalty whether they dive or not. Diving is a penalty in its own right, and should be called much more often, but if a player dives on a legit penalty it does not negate the existence of the original penalty. Osgood has been fine, and has outplayed Howard for the past month or more. Not the way Howard and Ozzie have been playing, respectively. At this rate, it'll probably be the reverse.

If Osgood is not a competent back-up then you must think Howard is not a competent starter.

And Howard has been lighting up the rink with his play? And the defense has been competent?

Agreed. When you give up four goals, the problem is bigger than losing Datsyuk.

I hate bloggers.

I usually like "Winging It In Motown", but I came across that earlier and couldn't disagree more. Jimmy Howard has been no better than Chris Osgood since the Red Wings struggles began. This team will improve when they decide to give a damn in their own zone again.

Close your eyes then Will you not post on LGW either? Ah, Mindfly's 1st cousin.... Welcome

Am I the only one who doesn't care who plays in an outdoor game with two teams playing in a different sports' arena/venue? That Northwestern game was awesome at Wrigly, the MSU/UofM was awesome at the Big House, the Final Four at Ford Field, etc. I don't care who plays, it's going to be awesome and entertaining. The Canadian teams have their heritage classic and the US teams have their Winter Classic. The biggest and most marketable markets are going to get the games until hockey becomes popular. If you're seriously butthurt over Crosby playing in another Winter Classic, than you truly aren't an honest fan of the game of hockey. It's an outdoor game for crying out loud, all hockey fans should watch it regardless of who is in it!

They're two of the players that will make a play every single game where you have to rewind your DVR and just go, "wait, what the hell did he just do?!" in a good way. Maybe I exaggerate for Lidstrom, but I know I do that all the time, mainly because I'm a defenseman that's about Lids' size (i.e. not very big), so I try to emulate his game as much as possible.

Lidstrom > Bourque

GOOOOOOOO GREEEEEEN

The NHL can't land a decent TV contract, so on the one day when they ARE able to grab a piece of the spotlight....you're going to fault them for putting their two biggest draws on the ice? Keep boycotting if you like, but don't complain when NHL games are continually having to be watched on some obscure channel because they are not able to prove that they can pull ratings to deserve to be on anything better.