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Sorry, it's not the beginning of the season without this thread. Mere weeks away from the opener, people. :D

What I find interesting is how you pretend that your "opinions" are facts, it's strange. By the way, no love for Brett Hull? Or do you consider him Canadian and not American?

http://espn.go.com/nhl/story/_/id/7006283/jody-shelley-philadelphia-flyers-gets-10-game-suspension-hit-behind I honestly think this is a great start for Shanny. 10 games seemed harsh at first, but this was such a clear hit from behind that could have easily been avoided. When there's as little grey area in what happened as a hit like this, I think the league should come down hard. I don't want to jump the gun, but here's hoping there's no more Campbell Wheel of Justice.

Put Flip in front of the net and let him take over for Holmstrom

His goal was pretty nice too. Batted out of the air from the circle on a shot from the opposite point. Announcers were pretty impressed.

Pretty sweet goal, intentionally shot wide by Kindl, Flip redirected it in mid-air from the edge of the left circle.

The stream really is that far behind? So I'll get to watch the Filppula Goal?!?!

There's no freedom without free man. :hippie: esteef

if the Red Wings win and no one sees it....?

Longevity is a part of the game. LaFontaine did have his career end early, while Modano played on and continued to excel. That gives Modano a notch over LaFontaine in my book, whether it's partially luck related or not. Also, you have to remember that LaFontaine padded his stats somewhat from playing in the 80's, where guys scored more often. Modano in his prime in the 80's would have put up similar numbers. And Modano did have stiff competition at his position. Sure, he didn't have Gretzky or Lemieux, but he had Sakic, Fedorov, Lindros, Yzerman, Forsberg, Sundin, etc. Those are some pretty damn good centers and will all likely be in the HOF someday. You say defensive play is all he had over LaFontaine? How about skating? Modano could skate as well as any player in hockey history. He also had a cannon for a wrist shot, slap shot, one-timer and one of the best backhands in the game ever. Also, he was the face of a franchise for several decades and was usually their most feared offensive player.

Interesting, here is one of my own thoughts based on about the same stuff you base your opinion on. If Detroit moves East they will become weaker. We will become complacent and won't work as hard. We will easily lose 5 wins in a season due to playing in a weaker conference which breeds weaker teams. Detroit has been doing just fine in the West I'm sure we can all agree. Just thinking from memory we have had: 6 Presidents Trophies 20 straight Playoff appearances 8 Western Conference Final Appearances 6 Stanley cup Final Appearances 4 Cups But that jet lag is killing us.

My thoughts after the game: 1. The young kids looked good. Tator and Mursak where flying around and Emmerton did nothing to lose the last forward spot. 2. Smith is NHL ready now. I would love to see him up this year a lot but we cant be greedy and another year of 20+ minutes in GR will be great for him and the team next season 3. Hudler must really be worried about losing his spot and getting moved. He showed more jump and speed last night than any game last year. 4. I liked Brunnstrom but the hot dog move on the breakaway is just not acceptable when your trying to win a spot. Take the puck hard backhand and he scores probably. The one hand on the stick made it to easy for the D to break up. 5. Cleary looked real good minus the one lack of concentration and boarding call. 6. Jimmy looked very rusty. Should have been better with all 3 goals. 7. Dats is just Dats. Nothing more needs to be said. 8. Kronner looked real good getting into the offence always at the right time.

After seeing who made this thread, my first instinct SHOULD have been to chuckle and go on my merry way. Instead I was about ready to say "Really? You've followed the team on this forum HOW LONG?!?!" My cynicism is getting the best of me.

Hahaha I was literally like "Oh man not this again" till I saw it was a regular member and then lol'd. Bring on the opener

I liked the idea Bettman was kicking around moving Winnipeg west (obvious) with Detroit AND Columbus both moving East. That would make it exactly the same as MLB. That would put 16 in the East and 14 in the West. Works fine in the MLB, it would work wonderful in the NHL. Say what you will about the West rivals "needing" Detroit in the West, in the end, it's all about money and TV ratings, and people will tune in to watch Detroit/Montreal/Toronto/Rangers/Pittsburgh/Bruins all play each other more than Detroit playing Phoenix. Besides, Chicago is the new big name in the West , so they can take on that roll of selling out the seats in the West. Vancouver is great, San Jose, Anaheim are always a good draw. There are plenty of teams in the West that are good to great, they don't 'Need" Detroit. I want to see that Detroit/Chicago Stanley Cup Finals next year, so I am all for moving East!

Using that logic, I guess that proves Stuart is the REAL Raffi's replacement because that was last year's pairing? Lol! So to use that same logic, because we established Stuart (aka Raffi's replacement) will be reunited with Kronwall means Kronwall = Lidstrom's replacement? Isn't this fun!

one year too late.

Ah, you're right. I did leave Hull off. That does push Modano out of the top five. And btw, Frank Brimsek was one of the top two goaltenders in the NHL in the first eight of his ten seasons, missing two years during that span because of Coast Guard service. Modano is not even CLOSE to that. Modano scored more points than LaFontaine, but LaFontaine's career ended early due to concussions. LaFontaine was considered among the top few centers in the league for a long time when Gretzky, Lemieux, Yzerman, and Messier were all in their primes. Modano didn't have competition nearly that stiff, and still spent less time near the top. His peak was also not as high. The only thing Modano might have had on LaFontaine is defensive play. And even that only came in a short five or six year span of Modano's career in the late 1990s and early 2000s; he was terrible defensively early on and for the last few years of his career. Howe played at the same level through the 80s as Ray Bourque and Paul Coffey, both generally considered top-ten all-time defensemen and both in their prime. Chelios won multiple Norrises and contended for many others, and was considered one of the league's top defensemen for fifteen years. Hull actually has more 17 points in 230 fewer games, but is not American-born so Modano is still technically the leader in that category. Hull also has a Hart trophy and a Pearson award, while Modano has a Calder trophy. So depending on whether you include Hull, Modano is either the fifth or sixth greatest American hockey player.

Yes he was. Smith was giving away the puck nearly everytime he had it. Or he'd make a bone headed pass that was just dumb. His giveaway at the blueline on the PP was another example. Smith is far from NHL ready unless Babcock want's to run a torpedo system (4 forwards and 1 defensemen). Smith is bad defensively. He's completely overrated here. He was this bad in GR last year when I watched him. The only thing going for him is his age (young) and has time to improve. He is brilliant offensively. As for solid defensemen last night, I give Commdore the nod. He wasn't really "noticable" unless you looking for him, the guy is HUGE and STRONG. He's a fricken wall and seemed to keep himself well positioned and did all the right things. Stuart was bad. Kronwall was bad but showed flashes of brilliance. But the fact remains the same, Smith isn't NHL ready right now. I really enjoyed watching Brunnstrom the most last night. Mursak was my 2nd favorite prospect to watch. Emmerton had some good shifts. Oh, and Holmstrom looked good on the 4th line. I was extremely disappointed with Eaves on the top line, I thought he'd do better.

Glad this game will be streamed online! Excited to see what Nyquist does! Not to nit pick, but White isn't Raffi's replacement, he's Kronwall's replacement. Kronwall moves up to Raffi's role.

It wasn't a "wild tangent", it was a funny response to your weird theory. And Stuart was Lidstrom's defense paring last year. Not Raffi. Also no. Kronwall will be the dman to help aquire the points we lost from Raffi, not Ian White. We hope White can help make up for Kronwall's statistical point production from year's past. Each dman will be slight downgrade from their respective replacements in terms of point production. We never considered White as Raffi's replacement. Kronwall moves up the depth chart and White was brought here to fill that void.

I would LOVE to see this source that quotes Holland saying White is, in fact, a better puck moving defensman than Kronwall. I bet you don't produce it because I highly doubt Holland ever said such things.

What location are you using? I just purchased OverPlay and it isn't working for me in the two locations I tried

THIS WORKS!!!!!!!!!11 I am watching the game!!!1111 IT does have lag, but it's pretty decent. Ericsson and Kindl look good. Conklin is playing sharp. Giox (sp) just got a penalty. Filppula drew it against the flyers

Of course I did. I can get refund. 1st period over. Franzen almost scored on PP. He's terrorizing the goaltender. Lol