Leaderboard

Official Game Day Thread - - Tonight's Matchup - - VS. Start time: 7:30 EST Joe Louis Arena - Detroit, MI Available On: Tonight's Stream Stream Official Game Preview: Original 6 Pre-Season matchup in Detroit - - - *Opposition GDT* Forthcoming - - - News from around the NHL Ovi, Kovi lead bounce back candidates Iginla back on the ice for the Flames Kings, Doughty reach agreement *Pre-Season* MAPLE LEAFS 3-3-0 Last Game: Defeated OTT 5-3 *Pre-Season* RED WINGS 2-3-0 Last Game: Lost to CHI 4-3 Valtteri Filppula-Henrik Zetterberg-Johan Franzen Justin Abdelkader-Darren Helm-Todd Bertuzzi Gustav Nyquist-Cory Emmerton-Tomas Holmstrom Chris Conner-Joakim Andersson-Landon Ferraro Nicklas Lidstrom-Ian White Niklas Kronwall-Doug Janik Brian Lashoff-Garnet Exelby Projected TOR Lines Clarke MacArthur - Mikhail Grabovski - Nikoali Kulemin Joffery Lupul - Philippe Dupuis - Phil Kessel Matt Frattin - Darryl Boyce - Colby Armstrong Mike Brown - Mike Zigomanis - Colton Orr John Michael Liles - Dion Phaneuf Keith Aulie - Luke Schenn Jake Gardiner - Mike Komisarek Jonas Gustavsson versus. Jimmy Howard Record: 0-2-0 Next Game - October 1 VS. 7:00 EST - Air Canada Center

You don't get it. Just like your polar opposite, both of you bring him up in these absurd extremes and bring him up in topics or subjects that have absolutely nothing to do with him over and over and over again. 9 times out of 10, we know what is coming from both of your keystrokes, and when it's annoying in either extreme positive or negative, people are going to neg you. Both of you are grown men that should know damned well that he is neither as bad or as good as either of you underhype or overhype him respectively, yet you two still keep on doing it over and over and over again. I have little doubt that yall aren't trying to purposefully piss people off, but it is still incredibly numbing and annoying. Most times I want to strangle both of you, figuratively speaking of course, when I read your responses. Nobody here says he is the greatest thing since sliced bread or an all-star like you perceive, and conversely most people don't think he is as bad as a dumptruck (when he isn't in a dry spell or whatever) like eva unit zero perceives. The only two people with these absurd extremes are you two. Not the LGW community, you two and you two alone. The majority of people will likely give him fair kudos if he is playing well, or dog him accordingly and fairly if he struggles (like much of the beginning of last season for instance). Nothing more or less. And making a big deal out of being negged is annoying as well, worrying about ego or how you look on here to people you probably will never see in life. Let it be, people don't have to explain themselves to you or why they plus or minus you. You want to keep disliking somebody, doesn't bother me, that's totally your business and your choice and I respect that and won't be able to change that, I'm not trying to. Not trying to change eva unit zero's supporting of Hudler either. But keep beating a dead horse in this type of fashion and in places that have nothing to do with him, you are going to get a good bit of negatives and bashlashes more often than not. Now as for Brunnstrom, I think at worst he secured himself a minor league contract here, definitely improved his chances lately to make the Wings and with some recent injuries to other probables. Would love to have him in the system.

Brunnstrom and Emmerton have been the two best 'prospect' tryouts. Neither will pass through waivers, so Holland may as well sign Bruno and rotate him with Miller and Emmerton. Deal with Mursak when he gets off IR. If Emmerton or Bruno cool down or don't pan out, waive one of them. If they outplay Miller, waive Miller.

Wow. Thats pretty over the top. Especially considering other players got less for similar hits this preseason AND it wasn't a targeted head shot and Ben Smith was just as at fault as Brendan Smith for trying that fancy toe drag at the last second.

Seems a touch harsh.

First: Second: At least you managed a whole intervening sentence before contradicting yourself.

Yeah, no need for any Cleary hate. For what he brings to the team he is more than worth his cap hit. Can't even believe someone could see it any other way. His scoring alone is worth is 3mil/year, not to mention everything else he brings on the defensive side of the game. Not to mention that he can play on any line in any situation. He'll never be a superstar but is everything we need.

That's hardly a comparable situation. Backes' first full season in the league was 2007-2008 and he was still on the last year of his deal this past season. Backes parlayed a couple of 30-goal seasons into a bigger deal. You are also comparing probably the best forward on a pretty deep team up front to maybe the 4th or 5th best forward on the Red Wings. Also, your claim Cleary misses 1/4th of the season EVERY year couldn't be further from the truth. Since joining the Red Wings, Cleary has never played fewer than 63 games, so in fact he has actually never missed 1/4th of the season in ANY year. Like Mickey says, don't let the facts get in the way of a good story. Everyone on the team is getting older -- should we trade Franzen or Zetterberg too since both of them have missed time? I'll take a guy that can score 26 goals, play on any line, is strong defensively and works his ass off every single shift. Then again, I would need to get off his jockstrap and look at it with your objectivity instead.

Rule #2: It's the Board of Governors that has to approve any realignment plan, not the commish.

Total props to Volpatti too. He held up when he knew Winchester was down. Some players would have just kept swinging.

Cleary is such a scrub. We should definitely part ways with the second leading goal scorer on the team. Why would anyone agree with you now anyways? He's been worth the money for the two years you have been claiming he isn't, so I can't see this season being any different.

Ben didn't headbutt his shoulder. Brendan threw a high risk hit and missed, only clipping the head. Now he's getting punished for it. Here's the way it should be done. compared to the wrong way. Vladdy takes a better angle and is coming in low for the hip check. He's got his body lined up properly with Lemieux's, so even when Turtle tries to avoid the hit, Konstantinov makes solid contact with him. Brendan came east west and was going to miss, so he threw a shoulder, which has an extremely high chance of clipping a guy in the head. Ben Smith didn't have his head extraordinarily low. It was where most guy's would be when they're carrying the puck. I think the suspension is too long, but this was not Ben Smith's fault because of a toe drag move or having his head too low.

It's up to him if they let him play during his suspension, but he has to be on an NHL roster for the games to come off his suspension. The AHL generally allows players to play when they are suspended in the NHL, only when it's a major suspension do they make the player sit. All the AHL can do is issue a suspension of their own which does NOT affect the NHL suspension that he has to serve while on the NHL roster. The Flyers had to do that with one of their boneheads a few years ago. They had to call him up before every game and then send him down immediately afterwards in order to take games off his suspension while he played in the AHL.

This pretty much sends a zero tolerance message in regards to head shots & in my opinion, also sends the message that the player who gets hit is not expected to take some responsibility for putting himself in a position to take a dangerous hit i.e. Ben Smith trying to make a last minute move & changing the angle of the hit from shoulder-on-shoulder to shoulder-on-chin. If that's the message the league wants to send, fine. But if there's a similar situation down the road, whether this season or not, they better be consistent. Your move Shanny. We'll be watching to see if you turn into Colin Campbell 2.0.

You know it's harsh when even Mike Milbury was sticking up for Smith.

A dreamland where even Sharks can win the Stanley Cup.

wha???? Have you never seen video from when Howe played and his damn elbows?..Billy Smith...Eddie Shore....heck even Mark Messier was mean. Didn't call him "Terrible" Ted Lindsay for the flowers he would pass out to the other team=)

Maybe you would sign up for that, but that isn't what NHL players are signing up for. I'd like to think NHL players have more respect for fellow humans that that.

Unnecessary clutter.

You're going to have a hard time convincing the majority on here about Cleary. Good luck with that.

I know, it makes me sad. I don't think Shanahan is gonna try and completely clean up hockey though (Fingers crossed). All the suspensions so far have been pretty legit, I just don't want the line to be too strict. I think he's making a statement and will back off. Just like how they tried to clean up the game after the lockout. It's GOOD players are finally being shown they need to not be dirty scumbags. It'll be BAD if this becomes such a common occurance players don't want to hit. Head contact is watched closely in every game and I don't really mind that. But if a player throws a check and the other person's head is unintentionally hit due to reasons outside the checking players control (ie. the player with the puck being a idiot and lowering his head) the player shouldn't get fined. It's been grey area on that so far, but we'll see what happens.

It's the freaking helmet. Who gives a crap?

It stands for "Asshat" in Pittsburgh.

I liked his hustle at camp...he worked hard. The last day (Thursday) after they were done scrimmaging, he was out on the ice with Brendan Smith and Pasha, and the three of them were down at the other end of the ice doing keep away drills. Pasha was teaching them, and Fabian was watching every move he made and soaking up every bit of advice he was given. And he's a very quiet, nice kid. I like his chances for being in GR - I think he's earned a place.