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Murph can't be too drunk...he know's what camera to look at during the intermission show.

moron beating on glass :battle:

Congrats to the Salei's on the birth of a healthy child. After what my sister went through this fall, I can't take that for granted and always pray for expectant parents.

I have to agree with you on all these points. I think his biggest issue is focus. His hockey IQ isn't bad offensively but he doesn't always see the play develop in his own end and it bites him in the ass. Sometimes it's obvious he's a converted forward. People here always rag on the 3rd pairing defensemen because hey-- they're like sooooo bad compared to Lidstrom. But Lidstrom makes six times more money than them for a reason! E's been a solid 3rd pairing guy who's been playing outside his comfort zone since Rafalski's been injured. Instead of playing bottom pairing minutes E's been playing top 4 mins (last night he was 3rd amoung defensemen in mins played) and his discomfort doing so really shows. Ericsson started the season really strong and managed to contribute offensively. As I've always said-- he starts to doubt himself and lose confidence when he isn't putting points up. We're seeing this all over again. One place he was very effective in Grand Rapids is the PP. Hell, he was strong on the PP in the 09 playoffs too. Give Ericsson some power play time instead of Kindl and let Kindl get some NHL PK experience. It definitely wouldn't hurt Kindl's development to let him play some time on the PK. It's not like he's producing on the PP right now. The fact remains that Ericsson's logging a ton of even strength time on ice. He's averaging 17:08 mins/game of even strength ice time. That's third on the team behind Stewart (17:13) and Kronwall (17:20). Last year E was 6th in even strength time on ice among the defense (14:37 min/game). Overall he's playing 2 mins more per game on average. He's also second among the defense for +/- with a +10 so he can't be doing that terrible compared to last year. And he still has fewer give aways than Rafalski and Kronwall. People need to accept that our 3rd pairing isn't going to be a pair of all-star defensemen. You get what you pay for.

He had to make room for more turnover prowess. Red Wings PP

I'm definitely disappointed in his lack of drunkeness.

Sure missed Patty for that kind of play right there. Just constantly working

Are you planning to kill him?

Someone please throw an octopus at the gentleman banging on the glass.

A goal here would make me more comfortable.

wow give Datsyuk some teammates please!!!!!

Holmstrom's a liability.

A defense lineup of: Nick-Rafi Kronner-Stewie Kindl-Salei is looking quite green on the other side.

Hope the wings can play a full 60 mins tonight. Lets go Wings

I can see where you're coming from. Some here know how I feel about the necessity of enforcers and the embellishment given to their correlation to wins, but what's been concerning me over the last several seasons, especially this one and the last, is that people are trying to pacify what is already a violent sport. Hockey is a physically violent sport. Football is a physically violent sport. The type of fighting in the UFC or boxing is a physically violent sport. I can understand the logic of making things "fair" in terms of sport and giving each team an equal chance to win, with letting talent be the winning factor in most or all cases. However, I cannot and will not ever see the logic behind what I feel is the very same thing happening to the NHL as the NFL, which is this prudish-like evolution of sports which will always be physically violent into something that is "nice" by nitpicking it to hell, which is exactly what is being done by dissecting and penalizing every clean or even marginal hit. It is not going to result in cleaner hits with a sport that is that quick and includes that much physical violence. It's only going to bog the game down in bureaucracy and make these leagues suck as a representative of a certain sport, as well as, unfortunately, evolve the sport itself into something quite confusing. If one wants to avoid injury so badly they should play in another league or another sport where the prospect of getting badly injured is significantly lower. What I think should be addressed is the lack of respect for other players. Clearly this has declined league wide, even though it has always existed, to a smaller degree. This would go much further in the possibility in getting players to hold up on another possible vulnerable player, but then again, who the player is, on the ice, is without a doubt a factor into how much someone will go out of their way to finish a check. That's why something between the players, on the ice, needs to budge. The NHL trying to implement these new shoddy rules isn't going to change anything but make the game less exciting to watch.

For those that were curious, Ava's middle name is actually called a patronym, and it's common in Eastern European countries, especially Russia. For example, Pavel Datsyuk's daughter is Elizabeth Pavlovna, as Pavlovna is the feminine patronym for Pavel. In English, that would be like naming her Elizabeth Paula, since Pavel is Russian for Paul. So Ava Ruslanovna means "Ava, daughter of Ruslan." The famous Romanov children, the last Imperial rulers of Russia, all had the patronym Nicholaievna or Nicholaievitch, as the father's name was Nicholas.

Flip sucks, he can never score 20 goals in a single game.

Pretty much unstoppable, unless you're some LGW members.

Helm with the Ovechtrick.

Ovechkin OBLITERATED by a Datsyukian hit after Pavel makes a Datsyukian deke around Mike Green, where Ovechkin is clearly charging Dats, lining him up. Pavel then DESTROYS Alexander Semin with a Datsyukian fight, in which Pavel simply trades punches with Semin, Probert-style. Semin, fighting the way he fights, only lands hammerfists to Dats' shoulder pads... none of which fazes Pavel, who then skates to the penalty box, signaling his championship belt around his waist.

I really don't get the pissing and moaning about Ericsson, The guy never played defense until he was 17 yrs old. Fischer and Kronwall both had tons of s*** plays their first few years. Rafalski is the guy I wish would get his head out of his ass and whenever I think about what he is getting paid I GET ILL. Another f***in year at 6 MILLION is unbelievable. Where the hell was Kenny's head when he came up with that nightmare.

I'm not understanding all the Ericsson hate. Ericsson has been Red Wings 3rd or 4th best defenseman this year. Salei, Kindl and even Kronwall have been bad.... hell even Ralfi has been bad. Ericsson is a guy that I want on the ice to defend against a 4-on-6 during the dying minute of a 2-1 game if Lidstrom or Stuart are in the box.

I honestly dont think he has been that bad, hes been much better this year than last ye, if he was more physical and used his size he wouldnt be all that bad. I dont know how all this hate is on Ericsson when we have kindl, kindl is worse than ******* lebda for gods sake. Now last year i think E was awful but hes been better, or im jusst paying attention to how s***ty kindl is and therefor dont notice his s***tiness?

I have. He told me that Bettman makes sure nothing happens to him and that there is a massive conspiracy against the Wings now that he is in the league. Then he ate a kitten and kicked me in the shins. What a jerk.

Saw a short clip of him speaking, he does have a great voice. It was refreshing to hear him talk about how he made mistakes that landed him where he did. Nice to see someone face the consequences of their actions. Nice move by the Cavs, too, as they have long seemed sympathetic to the economic plight of their region / fan base.