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I highly doubt it. Wisniewski is a guy that can score a lot of points from the blueline. He's overpaid, but guys like him will always have a place in the game because he's a good player. Downie is an ******* and a dirty player, but he spent time on Tampa's top 2 lines last season, and put up good numbers. Cooke is a well liked guy in the Pens lockerroom. These players will always be around whether they get suspended a lot or not, because they are important to the team when in the lineup. As for pure enforcers, they'll be around as long as fighting is allowed in hockey and as long as they're paid cheaply. I want the NHL to be more physical than their European hockey counterparts. That's one of the things that makes me love hockey. I like seeing pure goons fight. What I don't like is people like Ruutu, Cooke, Tootoo, etc. but those players won't ever disappear as long as they can contribute something else to their team. Now a guy like Shelley, I don't mind seeing get punished, because he's a pure goon but he's also a dirty player who has no business being out there. What I really want to see is an elimination of both the instigator rule and the suspension for instigating at the end of games. Then maybe Wisniewski would have challenged Clutterbuck and not tried to take his head off. I think the instigator has resulted in many injuries that could have possibly been avoided. Of course you can still get injured in a fight, but when a guy is blindsided to the head, he has no chance of defending himself.

Absolutely Wisniewski deserved 8 games for that. He targeted Clutterbuck's head with his elbow after the game had ended. Clutterbuck didn't even have the puck, either. On top of that Wisniewski has been suspended four times since 2008. He's a meat head.

Official Game Day Thread - - Tonight's Matchup - - VS. Start time: 8:30 EST United Center - Chicago, IL Available On: Tonight's Stream '>Stream Official Game Preview: Red Wings visit Chicago - - - *Opposition GDT* From HF Boards - - - News from around the NHL New look has Avs hopeful Panthers have high expectations this season Canes ink Rutherford to four year extension *Pre-Season* RED WINGS 2-2-1 *Pre-Season* BLACKHAWKS 1-2-1 Justin Abdelkader-Darren Helm-Chris Conner Drew Miller-Ryan Johnson-Patrick Eaves Gustav Nyquist-Cory Emmerton-Fabian Brunnstrom Tomas Tatar-Joakim Andersson-Landon Ferraro Jonathan Ericsson-Jakub Kindl Doug Janik-Brendan Smith Travis Ehrhardt-Mike Commodore Projected CHI Lines Currently unavailable Ty Conklin Record: 1-0-0 versus. Corey Crawford Record: 0-0-0 Next Game - September 30 VS. 7:30 EST - Joe Louis Arena

Stats count a great deal, but how valuable is Granderson to the Yankees? they have A-rod, Teixeira, Cano, Jeter, Martin, Jones, Swisher, and Posada in their everyday lineup as well as Granderson. Take one out of that mix and you still have a first place playoff team. Take Cabby out of the mix for Detroit, and you have a .500 team. Simple as that.

This is the preseason. Ericsson just got his contract and people are already pointing to it as a failure when the pairings have not been decided and the regular season hasn't even started yet. The point was Ericsson isn't even the worse defenseman making $3+ million right now. People can only criticize what he's done in years past (even though he was the 2nd best +/- defenseman on the team last year) and complain. Complaining during the preseason is unwarranted. Erisson is locked to be #5 this year whether people like it or not. Sorry you missed the original point, you are coming into an off topic conversation and you didn't read the posts leading up to the overall conversation. You probably missed the post where someone blamed Ericsson for a giveaway when he wasn't even on the ice. This seems to be the norm, not the exception on LGWs because people are so consumed with hate that they can't watch the game objectively.

Using that logic, Stuart should be battling for a roster spot. That said, I trust Holland and Babcock's opinion over yours.

I don't mind seeing guys suspended for hits like the one Shelley threw. What i'm scared of is the overreaction of every single hard hit. I don't want the good, hard-hitting physicality of the game eliminated. I do want the hits from behind, especially, gone. I agree with you on the instigator part, many injuries could have potentially been avoided, and you wouldn't have the surplus of mega-agitators (Cooke, Kaleta, Avery, Clutterbuck, Ott, Tootoo, etc.). Sure, there were agitators in the pre-instigator era. As for Heaten's comment, "goons" being eliminated has nothing to do with the crackdown on blindside hits. Not sure where he got that from. Fact is, as long as the agitators can still contribute to the team in other ways, GMs will still give them contracts.

Kronwall hasn't been that physical this preseason either. Maybe he is confident he has a roster spot and doesn't feel the need to risk injury? I'm also pretty sure Ericsson wants to stay healhy as well. Why risk injury in a preseason game? Unless you're fighting for a roster spot and want to impress the coaches, it makes no sense. Stuart has been brutal. Kronwall has been inconstant as hell. Ericsson has made some fine passes and some bad passes. No better, no worse than Kronwall. In this preseason, Ericsson has looked like the 4th best defenseman behind Lidstrom, White, and Kronwall. Stuart, especially, has been very disappointing. Smith is another defenseman that has been a total let down this preseason. Kindl is Kindl... he's been what I expected. You are free to critique Ericsson all you want. But he hasn't even been the worst dman making $3+ million this preseason... and it should be mentioned he's been paired with 6th and 7th dmen on the depth chart. Edit, thanks for the negative. I'm sure you live to neg those who you don't agree with! Lol!

Ericsson could play defense better than Stuart, and score better than Ralfi and will still somehow be the LGWs official whipping boy. I watched several preseason games and he's not even the worse defenders making $3million or more. Stuart and Kronwall have been far worse than Ericsson, yet somehow Ericsson is the goat everyone wants to talk about. While E had some brain dead moments, he's been solid. He and Kindl have not done well together. Put Ericsson with White or Kronwall and he'll finish the year with one of the best +/- stats like he did last year. I think peoples' hate for him is so strong that they refuse to watch the game objectivley. Like the guy you responded to tried to say how bad Ericsson is this preseason, then replies back admitting that he had the play he was originally referring to all messed up and it wasn't Ericsson's fault when he thought it was. That proves that a player (Lidstrom for example) could go -2 with 3 giveaways, it will somehow be made Ericsson's fault even though he was on the bench during the giveaway and is a +3 in the game. it's going to be another long year on LGWs.

Yeah, Red has Hudler on it so of course they will crush the white team

The comment I responded to was an idiotic thing to say. There were a lot fewer cheapshots 20 or 30 years ago then there are now, despite the fact there were tons more enforcers and fights in those days. Do people not understand that fact? And a guy like Wisniewski isn't even an enforcer, so I don't see how this will deter players like him from playing in the NHL. Guy is going to be Columbus's top D-man this season. It was just a stupid comment. What Wisniewki should have done is fight Clutterbuck, instead of blindside him. That's what fighting is for, if you feel your teammate needs to be defended. Instead, he blindsided the guy. Guys like Cooke, Ruutu and Kaleta are also not going to be eliminated from the game. Those guys can actually take a regular shift, but are dangerous dirty players. They're the ones who have caused the most concussions and injuries over the years. Not the pure goons.

Oh brother.

NOTE: Keep the political bashing/discussion out of the GD.

These new rules are dumb. Bring back old school hockey. The game was better when players were only allowed to pass the puck to players behind them. The money goes to Players' Emergency Assistance Fund.

The Todd has a pretty impressive bag of tricks when it comes to shootouts. Nice goal, there. You're friends with draperfan on Facebook?

the team wont send it to you im sure, as it is being used as a promo to get people to the games. but for how many of these are made they get around pretty well. id check ebay a couple days after the first game to see if some cheap ass is trying to sell one. i bet if you bumped this thread up after the game one of the nice people on this forum might send you one since its only like a dollar to send something like that.

Drew freaking Miller.

You really think someone will put a claim on him? He was a FA and didn't even get any bites, plus, they can designate him before the season starts and he won't have to clear (what is it, 7 or 10 days?) So, give him a contract and designate him before Oct and we're clear... that is, if he doesn't flat win the 14th roster spot... Babs seems pretty impressed with him...

Put him in Grand Rapids for this year where he can get top-6 minutes and continue to work on his consistency and work ethic. If he continues on the pace he's at, there will certainly be room for him on the Red Wing roster next year, and not as a grinder.

These are just too funny... thought I would share some:

Calling that a penalty is borderline, writing an article and linking a video + potetial suspension is simply pathetic.

Shanahan is doing a wonderful job. This should have happened sooner. Goons and enforcers will soon have no place in the game. I'm loving it. And yes, 8 game suspension and a $500k fine is appropriate. Shanahan 'gets it'. Hockey as we know it will be such a better sport in no time.

Who here said he was an enforcer? Nobody. The fact that teams can start phasing out "enforcers" who's sole job was to beat the s*** out of players like Wisniewski (sp?). Now those type of players are being punished on an entirely new level and costing them their careers. If Wiz comes back and pulls this same stunt again, his next suspension could be a year off without pay + fines... perhaps bankrupting said player. Shanahan is making a statement. Players can still fight without dressing 'enforcers'. More skilled players will play instead of unskilled goons. That's progress and the direction the new NHL is (and should) go. Who wants to see star players careers end short by retards who can't play hockey or by dirty players? The fact is, GMs won't need to blow money and roster spots on Downie type players anymore because Shanahan is taking out the Ruutu's and Cooke type players antics out of the game. If these players cost their teams (Wiz sitting in the press box instead of playing hockey is hurting his team) GMs are going to avoid signing those type of players in the future because they are more of a liability than their worth. This is the direction the new NHL is going and it's brilliant on Shanahan's part to start enforcing this. Hockey just got better!

he has not had great puck poise and he hasn't had great passing, nor is he physical enough. Kronwall has had some nice offensive step ups and passing. All of the dmen besides lidstrom seem to be having defensive difficulties, that usually is the main problem at the beginning of the season, though white has looked pretty solid as well. Ericsson and Smith have been the worst of the bunch and guys like Exelby not far behind. It isn't outrageous to bash people and I have several other players that I critique more harshly than ericsson if you look at my posting history I don't really ever complain that much about him besides he isn't physical enough but people were drawing comparisons and I am just pointing out the negative things ericsson has been doing, and he has been not that great.

well then the contract looks bad because talent wise he should be in a battle with them, and I wouldn't be suprise if he rides the pine at some point.