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Drunk/impaired driving is wrong, make no doubt about it. But people get on their high horse about this issue like none other, when virtually EVERY person who has ever drank at a bar and then driven home has probably broken DWI laws to some degree. And if you don't drink, but use your smartphone while driving every once in awhile, don't try to tell me you're any better than a drunk driver, either. Sheahan did a bad thing, and the law will punish him for it to the extent sorted out by the system. If it happens again, we can start to talk about a pattern. But the way people "discard" people with a DWI as if they must be "alcoholics" bothers me, even if the underlying offense IS wrong. You don't have be an alcoholic or chronic screw-up to make a mistake.

I still believe he did all he could reasonably do to address the issues the Wings' roster has, while not crippling other aspects of our organization, whether that be depth, finances, future, etc.

Driving the wrong way drunk down a one way street is like scoring on your own net in OT during the playoffs - you just don't do it

No. I think he did pretty well, considering that he lost his #1 #2 and #4 defenseman in just one year... Most other GM's would have destroyed our depth at forward and sacrificed our teams future to rebuild the defense through trades. I'd rather not lose anyone or our picks, and wait for Sproul, Ouellet, Marchenko, DeKeyser, and McKee to age up. Wouldn't say Ken was entirely unprepared either... 50% of our drafts picks over the last 2 drafts were D-men. Considering Kenny's style (building through the draft opposed to building through trades) I'd call that preparation. Anyone who knows Holland knows that the CBA also influenced his decision making. Although it was probably his most aggressive off-season, he still played it close to the vest and didn't tie up all our money. Minny's "Big Win" is going to be their biggest mistake when the cap drops. Goaltending: Fixed Weak Bottom Six: Fixed Sniper: Likely fixed (Brunner) Weak Defense: Addressed, but not fixed (Q and Colo) He addressed all of our needs and didn't blow up the team. If he had landed Suter (at a reasonable price) this off-season would have been an A+ performance. However that was clearly impossible, so it seems he did the 100% best he could. I'm happy with that. Plus he gets 10 bonus points for ditching Hudler

everyone is going to fall on one side of the other for the most part. i just wanna watch hockey

Was totally unprepared for Lidstrom's retirement. Shouldn't have had to jump through hoops for Suter in the first place.

Holland did the best he could this summer. Can't fault him for Suter choosing to play elsewhere. My complaint will always be with Holland's lack of action in the years leading up to this off-season. Rafalski was a surprise retirement, but everyone knew Nick's days were dwindling and Stu was going back to California.

I think the owners are entirely justified in wanting more than half of the HRR, given that they accrue ALL of the costs and take ALL of the financial risks. The players are entirely justified in wanting their ALREADY NEGOTIATED contracts honored, and not wanting unnecessary regulation of future contracts. Unfortunately, in negotations where millions of dollars are on the line, getting to a reasonable position takes time, and the final compromise has to be fought for (by both sides). I find it especially distrubing that anyone (not that you're doing this) would suggest that this is some sort of pissing contest between Fehr and Bettman. Neither of them do a single thing that they aren't mandated to do by their respective constituencies. All of the vehemence, hyperbole, etc. by the fans is the result of our third party view of all of this. It's easy to point a finger at one (or both) sides of this because in reality its not OUR millions of dollars on the line. It's always easy to tell someone else what they ought to do when the tough decisions aren't ours to make, and the consequences aren't ours to accept. Who cares who's right or wrong? I don't. I just want to watch Datsyuk turn Ryan Suter inside out.

Do you say this stuff because you actually believe it, or because you think it's really clever to instigate people? Seriously, I have to know.

No, advocating something requires an endorsement of the action. He's merely providing the lgw community with statistical evidence that indicates Sheehan posed less of a risk than some here are indicating. I don't think anyone is saying OWI presents no danger, it is dangerous. I just want everyone to ask themselves something. When ascertaining culpability, do you consider the intent and state of mind of the person? Most people see an intentional act as different from an accident just as we hold someone who is mentally impaired to be less responsible for their actions than someone who has their faculties about them? Granted, Riley was certainly responsible for putting himself in such a state in the first place. This does not change the fact that he legitimately believed he was going to make it home without hurting anyone. Otherwise, he wouldn't have gotten behind the wheel. He may have been misguided in his belief, but let's not turn this into a speculative debate regarding his moral makeup. Not to mention, none of us have all of the facts. Breathalyzers can be frighteningly imprecise. It is not clear how long it was between sheehan's last drink and the BAC analysis. The presence of mouth alcohol can cause drastic fluctuations in the Breathalyzer's measurements. If one has consumed a drink within 15-20 minutes of breath analysis their BAC will be much higher than it really is. Burps are another common source of "mouth alcohol". Also when one considers everyone has a different body chemistry and tolerance, none of us can claim to be fully informed. Either way, this situation only proves why drinking to excess sucks. I prefer more natural forms of intoxication. When I go out to the bar with my friends I'll nurse one or two beers for the whole night while laughing at the drunks making asses of themselves. When the night's over I do't have to worry about how I'm going to get back home.

More so for everyone to give their heads a shake and realize where "their money" comes from, and how easily it can disappear!

Hahaha The only one that needs to do some growing up is LGW Before you judge this kid realize that drunk driving is not only VERY COMMON, but over 99% of the time nobody dies! An estimated 112 million Americans drove drunk in 2010 (about 1 out of 3 Americans) Only .009% of drunk driving ends in a fatality (you're 3x more likely to willing kill yourself than you're to get killed by a drunk driver or drunk driving) 99.7% of drunk drivers get home safely without even being pulled over Average drunk driver (that gets caught) will drive drunk at least 80 times before their first arrest Not trying to justify drinking and driving, it's still a stupid mistake to make, but that's what it is: A MISTAKE. Not some huge moral dilemma. It also has nothing to do with hockey and in no way effects his ability to skate on frozen water and shoot rubber. Frankly, I'm glad we finally have some drinkers on the team. We need more rough and tumble heavy drinking types in the lineup. Golden boy Smith is a bit of a barfly too. So let's all be fair and start criticizing his personal life as well. The other night Brendan showed up to a bar drunk in GR and tried to fight the bouncer when the bouncer wouldn't let him in... mind you the bar had already been closed for almost an hour when the tipsy, angry, confused Smitty showed up. I mostly feel bad for Riley in all of this honestly. That dumb decision he made while inebriated is going to be a huge pain in his butt for the next year at least. Bye bye drivers license and alcohol! Oh, and to whom ever brought up "alcoholism", you need to spend less time on your computer and more time at the bar. Did you even see his BAC? The only "superdrunk" alcoholic with a BAC that low would have to be an 80lb girl who just gave blood. This was totally expected though, the kid is Canadian and Irish for petes sake! Cheers Riley EDIT: Stats courtesy of MADD

If there is revenue growth the fans deserve a lockout when the new CBA expires

Team 1 Lucic - Crosby - Iginla Hossa - Malkin - Perry Backes - Talbot - Kane Ott - Getzlaf - Hartnell Pronger - Jackman Phaneuf - Byfuglien Bieksa - Weber Brodeur Fleury Team 2 Kopecky - Parise - Sharp Eager - Kesler - Stewart (Chris) Burrows - Pavelski - Heatley Torres(not Eve or Fernando) - Mayers - Setoguchi Wisniewski - Campbell Chara - Allen (Bryan) Mitchell - Gill (pylon) Luongo Giguere Team 3 Kunitz - Thornton - Doan Downie - Kennedy - Smyth Carcillo - Ribeiro - Laperriere Cooke - Jannsen Orpik Emery Couldn't finish team 3. I guess I hate a lot of players.

That's interesting because I know shop.nhl.com sells all kinds of merchandise with team logos on the front. I don't recall ever seeing a player that owned a team before. Good try though.

What roles are you talking about? Tootoo and Semin are not even comparable. Tootoo is a bottom 6 agitator and Semin is a top 6 scorer. Yeah we need a sniper in the top 6, but we also need grit in the bottom 6. Tootoo brings that. Semin is a terrible choice anyway. We don't need his laziness rubbing off on the rest of our players. I wouldn't even want him in the same room as Pulkkinen.

my only beef is with acquiring tootoo...i think that was a mistake. but i could be wrong. i think i would have gone after semin over tootoo. we have enough role players. hell, half the team is role players...a true scorer is needed. with pasha working on semin, he would have worked better for us than ovechkin. but who knows...maybe brunner can be the acquistion of the decade!

Well I understand that but thats what happens when you have a discussion like this and have many saying that it is all Bettmans fault. I'm not really one to go with a trend just because someone comes up with a clever name for Bettman but I know that it does suck that we have had to go through this 3 times with him but im also not going to say it has been all his and the owners fault either.

OK, fair enough. Almost everything I have seen you say up to this point though has been pro-league and anti-union/Fehr, so you can't blame me for thinking that.

My opinion of Kenny has not changed at all. I think he played this past offseason very well. Willing to throw most of the bank at a few FA's while respecting his line in the sand moneywise. I think it played out ok. Now, these players who played the greed card are worried about getting all of the money thrown at them. Maybe he'll get a second chance at them. What if the owners get their way and don't have honor the promises they made but the players can opt out and hit FA again? Sounds fair to me. Pipedream, I know. I still have a lot of faith in Kenny and he has enough bank with me for that to last a while.

Exactly. I'm not mad at Holland for not getting Suter in the bidding war. I was disappointed he put the team in the position where he had to go for a hail mary like that. Add to that giving up a first rounder to get back a player he gave away as a stopgap move for Stuart's departure.

Maybe Sheahan has a "Stupidity Bucket List".

Get rid of Instigator rule. esteef

I honestly can't believe how much stone throwing is going on here. Who knew LGW was so full of morally, ethically, and behaviorally PERFECT individuals? I know I screwed up a lot in my youth, then learned my lessons and got over it. How lucky for all of you that you've never done anything wrong or irresponsible before. Nothing to get over. Easy. Here's hoping Riley (and the rest of us degenerates) can one day live up to the high bar that you've set for us. Lord knows you'll all be there waiting to point a finger and give us a good old fashioned self-righteous sermon if we don't.