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The unemployment rate among fast-food workers is about to plummet in St. Louis.

The bridges were already burned. Let's, for fun, say I was suddenly a fan of the MLB again, and oh right, my favourite player, Mark McGwire.. far from baseball now? This presumes I'm an idiot. The only reason the MLB is far less laden with performance enhancing drugs is because they had their pants pulled down, and I still see similar names not only playing in that league, but coaching in it, so their new concessions don't impress me at all. The MLB and their superstars were given a second chance to come clean during the media and Congressional circus, and they decided to plead the fifth. Rather than take the high road they were complicit -- there won't be another chance for the MLB as far as I'm concerned. If this turns out to be an NHL problem of similar proportions all it takes is following in MLB footsteps to lose my trust and thus interest, but given the NHL's recent safety hysteria and the obvious double standards they would employ (if true) if attempting to conceal it, they are on an even shorter leash, again, as far as I'm concerned. If this is a cloud that hangs over the NHL they should simply come out with what they know. While I was an ignorant fan, I can't turn a blind eye to this sort of nonsense anymore after having my pants pulled down, being a fan of the MLB and heavily against this sort of element in the league, and being a naive fan who thought this was all conspiracy talk only to find out it was true. Never again. I don't like cheaters, and I have no respect for the leagues and organizations which employ and collude with them to conceal it. I really hope this isn't the case for the NHL.

I won't concern myself with it until he has the balls to come out with names -- I don't do non-specific, cryptic nonsense. Same deal with the MLB, and once it the names were out, seeing the evidence, seeing player reactions, I never watched it again. I have no issue canning the NHL too due to lack of integrity but until Laraque can come out with names it's a $$$ campaign that stands to benefit him the more attention he gets without divulging.

It's rare to see you rip on Hudler like that.

this is very cool! Obviously, I wish Hiller would wear it all season, since it makes him let in five goals when playing the Wings. But nice job, very creative, good cause.

Kenny strongly intimated last night that HitchBLEEP would be returning. The Wings lost to the basement-dwelling Flyers in 2007, even AFTER that team had traded Forsberg. Then the Wings went on to come an inch from the SCF. It happens. There are 82 games in a season. In hockey, more than in any other sport, games can go badly against even the worst teams.

Please keep brunn in the line up and bring up nyquist...

Also, to cite the source the OP didn't do: http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=379721 The start of this story already looks like the MLB. Now, if only he would actually name names. If the NHL and NHLPA and the player(s) object, they can sue Laraque and we can see if this is just an attention stunt, or if this is a problem that needs to be dragged out much like the colluding MLB and MLBPA (<- probably the only time they were friends), more will be revealed in court. Either way, not to name players/teams does no good for the integrity of his case.

He has to earn it. We're talking about a player that's been in the AHL because he couldn't crack an NHL roster. With that said, his first few shifts were great. As the game went along, his compete level went down IMO.

Cleary was amazing!!!!!!!!! Oh, wait... nevermind. Sorry Crymson, too soon?

I wish.

Have you ever considered that the third line role was been a good thing for his production? He was playing on easily the most stacked team post-lockout. The Wings could roll out Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Franzen, and Hossa on lines one and two. After that, there wasn't much defensive pressure on Hudler's line. Just because he had great production playing 12 minutes doesn't mean that production would carry over equally if he were playing 20 minutes. 80 point players are 80 point players. They produce with what they've got. They don't need 30 different factors to go in their favor to produce at a high level. They make their teammates better, not the other way around. If Hudler were a foot taller, 30 pounds heavier, playing in a league with 1985 scoring levels on a line with Wayne Gretzky and Gordie Howe, and averaged 25 minutes a game I'm sure he'd get 100 points (but only if you prorate his 13 games between January 15th and February 20th)!

F**k you SouthernWingsFan. You suck.

F*** YOU DOLPHIN!!! F*** YOU WHALE!!!!

Right... Boyd Devereaux has a Stanley Cup ring also. Maybe they should pick him up and give him an A also? And Devereaux had 67G 112A and 179 PTS

enjoy

I am a big fan of fighting as you all know. However, these North American goons that went to Vityaz are a ******* disgrace to their professions and I've had enough of their s***. An enforcer's job is to protect his teammates and go after players that need to be put in their place. NOT to pick on guys for no reason, especially players who are not fighters and can't defend themselves. It's just bully tactics which have no purpose to them. This is the worst kind of spotpicking BS I've ever seen and it's been going on for years now. Have these players forgotten what the code is? Gratton, Verot, Sugden, that retard Mirasty, Yablonski, Brennan, etc. These guys are all on my permanent hate list for their behavior the last couple of seasons. Are they too dickless to play in North America anymore, so they have to go to Russia to fight skilled players? And how about their coach Andrei Nazarov. The big Russian ***** who always got his ass kicked in the NHL, and now he's overcompensating for it by instructing his goons to pick on non-fighters for no reason. What an *******. The weird thing about Vityaz is their GM, none other than Alexei Zhamnov. He was a skilled player his whole career, so I'm surprised he's allowing this garbage. Sorry for the language.

*Sigh* Thomas is a goalie. Hudler is not. Thomas played a leading role in helping his team win a Stanley Cup. Hudler, while he certainly played a positive role in helping his team win a Stanley Cup, was in more of a secondary situation. So again, hi Apple, I'd like you to meet Orange. And nowhere did I mention Nyquist about anything, so I'm not sure why you are responding to me about him.

Glad to see you acknowledge Hudler is capable of 70+, but I was referring to Franzen.

post of the year.

f*** you Steve Yzerman for having to get old and not be playing in the NHL till your 100!! f*** you Lids for even THINKING ABOUT RETIRING!!! (Your all we have left right now ;. And f*** you Hudler because...uh... you look funny!

Hi Apple. I'd like you to meet Orange.

Ok I really don't get the hate for Big Bert I wont lie. I get being annoyed with him but he's an aging player we picked up at a good price who does a lot more for his buck then most. EDIT: I don't know anybody who ever thought Bertuzzi would ever score 50 goddamn goals here? Unless you live under a rock you would know of his injury problems, he did try to play here before after all, again I get the frustation that sometimes come with him from a dumb penalty standpoint but I still feel he does a lot more good then bad for this club. On the rink and off.

We have one of the most capable rosters in the whole league that can deliver in each and every game and all we get is clear lack of effort. I'm getting tired of all these after game quotes "We though we were prepared", "We just got beat, 7-1, so to start like that tonight, to me, is lack of preparation," "It was a disappointing effort. The coaching staff didn't do a good enough job; the players didn't do a good enough job." We've heard such things so many times during the last two/three years. Where are the consequences? I think the real reason is that everyone on the roster feel too safe. They known that no matter how bad they play they'll never be traded. Starting from 4th line plug Miller to "superstar" Zetterberg. When intensity of the game is rather low we often win on a pure skill, when it gets higher like in the last two games we simply give up. To me this is pure lack of effort. If Bertuzzi or Zetterberg don't like to compete in games like this scratch them and call up Nyquist or Tatar. PS For those saying that it is only two games (there are always a plenty of such guys) I recommend to watch some other teams. No team in this league gives up games so easily.