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I don't want that diving piece of loud mouthed s*** near the wings!

Don't want either team to win, so i'll say Vancouver loses in 7

Is it just me or do Milan Lucic and Nathan Horton look like cavemen? Good players though.

The answer is yes, he's a douchebag. Oh, was that not the question?

Sorry, Mr. Yzerman, but I just couldn't take Stanley getting another tan. Besides, if you win a Cup in your first season, there's nowhere to go but down after that. This could be a very interesting series or one of the most boring SCF in history. I'm hoping for the former, and that the B's pull it off. Original Six and they have the best commercials. History tells us the refs will pretty much swallow their whistles in this series; I'm hoping the Nucks respect the Finals and don't feel the need to continue with their previous antics. And if they do, I hope Chara Kronwalls them.

Go Boston! I want to see Tim Thomas lift the Cup.

Do not want.

Not just US Hockey... Rafalski, Weight, Modano. All from Metro Detroit.

The punch that led Kevin Bieksa to Canucks May, 25, 2011 5:22 PM ET By Pierre LeBrun And to think, it was a punch in a Winnipeg parking lot that helped get playoff hero Kevin Bieksa his first pro contract with the Vancouver Canucks. What, you say? Enter former Canucks GM Brian Burke, who on Tuesday recounted to ESPN.com the story of Bieksa and the Canucks, which began in Winnipeg near the end of the 2003-04 season. "He played his four years at Bowling Green. They were eliminated from the playoffs, and we brought him to Manitoba [AHL] on a PTO [professional tryout]," Burke said. "One night after a game in Winnipeg, in which I don't think he played, they went to a local establishment. Fedor Fedorov was sitting at a table and Bieksa walked by the table, bumped him by accident and spilled Fedorov's beer. Bieksa apologized and offered to buy another beer." According to Burke, Fedorov was in no mood for the apology from the unknown rookie and challenged him to a fight outside. Bieksa again tried to defuse the situation, according to Burke, but Fedorov wanted to fight. "So, they go outside. Fedor was a big guy, he was a lot bigger than his brother Sergei," said Burke. "Then Fedor comes in and Bieksa drills him with one punch. Knocks him stone cold and cut wide-open and leaves him lying on the pavement." Burke said Bieksa figured he was done with the Canucks organization and would be sent home the next day. "Send him home? I said, 'We're going to sign him tomorrow,'" said Burke, whose affinity for truculence is well-established. Bieksa played 80 games with the Moose the following season before graduating to the Canucks in 2005-06. http://espn.go.com/blog/nhl/post/_/id/8493/the-punch-that-led-kevin-bieksa-to-canucks

He's not even overpaid. Unless Rafalski was in 07-08, because that's what his contract is comparable to. If Rafalski was overpaid then and we won a cup, then let's overpay some more players. Of course, many posters here don't understand that cap number isn't the real figure that matters, the percentage of cap space a contract occupies is. Rafalski's cap hit in 07-08 as a matter of percentage: 10.7% Campbell's contract under a $63m cap hit: 11.2% 0.5% difference, equal to $315,000 under the current cap. If the cap rises $4m in the next 2 years (a rise well under average for a 2 year span since the cap's institution), Campbell's contract would equal 10.6% of our cap hit at the same age Rafalski joined the Wings and occupied 10.7% of the cap. And Campbell's contract carries him to the same age at which Rafalski retired--actually, I think a year younger(while putting up 48 points in 63 games, mind). Given that they're close in skill sets, Campbell fills a hole at a much lower asset price than alternatives and a roughly equal cap price over the course of his contract. He's not my #1 option by any means, but he'd probably be the easiest to acquire for the relative talent level. Hudler and a pick/prospect probably gets that done if Bowman has any intentions of moving Campbell for cap space (and they need cap space, and they're paying a d-man for a level of play that doesn't fit the role on their team...) Main downside is he's a lefty shot, but we can still pick up a 2nd pair quality righty shot gritty guy... you know, the sort available in FA right now. And sorry guys, but conference/division doesn't have near the impact it does on trades in the post-cap world as compared to pre-cap. Plenty of big in-division deals have gone down post-cap.

How so? Even tho Campbell is over-paid by about $1.5 mill, he is still an elite defenseman. Was Chicago's best defenseman in the series against Vancouver. The guy has some serious wheels. Then we let Ericsson go, and sign Wiz. In this scenario we'd also have a little bit of money to spend up front.

One of the league's best defensemen. Would love to have him. He is about as close to Lidstrom as you'll find in the NHL. Excellent two-way defenseman who plays positional defense rather than physical defense. If we can get him, he'd be about the perfect replacement for Nick because he's basically a copy of Nick, only not quite as good.

Hudler homerism is starting to border on ridiculous now, did you guys grow up together?...Hudler's signing was just as unsuccessful as Modano's stint, he was useless for the majority of the season and failed to contribute anything during the most crucial series of the playoffs. If he manages to stay on this team another season, you'll be the only one celebrating .

He just doesn't have Hudler's body checking skills.

I think Modano could have really helped out in Game 7. It wasn't that apparent at the beginning, but when the Wings lost 2 of their top six forwards to injury during the game, it would have been nice to be able to mix in Modano for some potential scoring touch instead of Abdelkader. But overall, I'm not upset he missed most of the playoff games, as I don't think he was consistently one of the 12 best forwards on the team.

Why didn't Modano play? Hmm, maybe it had to do with the fact he wouldn't have been any good to the team. Novel concept, I know.

:violin:

Except no one would bring him up as a possibility. The Hossa thing came out of left field because we just won the cup and there was no need to add a big name.

If he was a free agent, maybe, but he wouldn't relinquish any assets for him, especially the assets it'd require for a player of his calibre. They'd at least ask for an NHL ready prospect (Tatar/Smith) plus a player just hitting their prime (Filppula/Hudler) and probably an unsigned prospect (Marshall/Aubry) and a couple picks (2nd/3rd) just to land him. That wouldn't be worth it, but a team like Edmonton or St. Louis who have a plethora of picks and prospects would be able to do it.

Maybe a trade and sign would work better? I know it's a massive gamble to trade for a pending UFA, but give us the rights to sign them for the three weeks prior to the start of free agency. That way the team gets something back for their player and we have to only give up minimal assets. It's probably not realistic at all, but it's a way to try.

He could crack the Wings roster easily, but I wouldnt want him honestly. Dives, takes bad penalties, and is a smaller guy for what he tries to do. Speaking of Carcillo, the guy he was traded for, Scottie Upshall is a free agent. If we want a spark plug player with upside, it's him, not Carcillo.

Vancouver in 2 1/2. Boston spends their home games brawling, and are disqualified and relocated to Quebec.

Stop mentioning Zherdev! Holland likes to sign or trade for players who play excellent two way games while working hard. Zherdev is on my "Do not sign" list. The guy is a locker room cancer.

Still have some Sammy love going on here. Would like to see the Ugliest Swede Line (even if they're not playing together, I like calling them that) raise the Cup. Definitely feel for them not having won in 40 years. I picked them at the beginning of the playoffs as my team to root for should evil things happen to the Wings. Not the same as picking them to win, so I'm pleased that they've come this far. Canuckleheads in 6. Luuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!

Fact.