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Go root for the Pens then

Please Montreal, Boston, NY, anyone, hell, even Chicago ffs stop Pittsburgh from winning the title

OK, let's say that the Wings had given up their 2013 1st, 2nd, and 5th, 2014th 2nd, and three of Jarnkrok, Pulkkinen, Sproul, Ouellet, Tatar, and Sheahan for three players whom we could not possibly re-sign---one of whom was a third-pairing defenseman, another who was a beat-up power forward, and a third who was almost certain to return to his hometown anyway. No thanks. This is a team in the process of rebuilding on the fly.

Who cares, we have Franzen.

Don't forget Bettman is on their team also.

We like our team.

Now I know why other teams' fans hated the Wings during the pre-cap days.

Exactly the reason, why some people (like me) would love to see this team being sellers at the tradedeadline.

Hoping this turns into the Pens version of the Wings 1999 deadline deals that brough Cheli, Ulf Samuelsson, Wendel Clark, & Bill Ranford to town.

So. How hard is Gary Bettman right now?

plz beat them i think i dislike the sharks more than i do the kings..... and that is saying alot.... lol

I tend to agree that those who get upset at Holland for failing to make things happen since last summer are off-base, as he did do all he could when in those situations, as I'm sure he's doing now. But it doesn't tell the whole story. What most Holland-bashers screw up on is thinking Holland dropped the ball say last summer with Parise and Suter or if DeKeyser doesn't sign here, then he obviously dropped the ball because it was an easy set up. But it's ultimately irrelevant what he does now with these guys in many ways when it's the team that's been put together over the last 4-5 years that's going to speak more to these players than what Holland says now. If Holland dropped the ball, it's been in not doing more to address player losses in years past, or failing to prepare for the loss of Lidstrom before he was up against a wall and desperate. After all, does anyone really think this would be a question for DeKeyser if the team looked more competitive on a consistent basis? If Holland had done a better job since our last Cup win at helping this team evolve, he likely wouldn't have to do much selling at all to someone like DeKeyser. But in any event, what happened happened, and while I haven't been a fan of many of the decisions for some time now, I can at least say that Holland is trying to do what he can since last summer to address issues. There's nothing more he can really do now, and presently, given the situation, you can't say he's not trying and doing the best he can. But he is stuck playing catchup you could say, and for that it is in many ways his own fault. A team with Hossa instead of Franzen and a legitimate number one defensemen replacement installed before Lidstrom retired instead of some of our tradable assets over the last few years is going to be a more attractive team to anyone he's trying to sign today. He got sentimental when things were still good and we weren't feeling the full heat of the cap, and the team that emerged out of that was not the team that he could use as leverage to get guys to really want to sign here, let alone for less than market value anymore. You could say that it's just the effects of parity brought on by the cap, and that's absolutely right on many levels. But if Holland was as good of a GM in the cap era as some thought he was prior to the cap, he would've done a better job of maintaining this team's prestige when he had the opportunity 3-4 years ago to do so. That's when he truly dropped the ball; back when things were good and people weren't paying enough attention. And yes, I know this team isn't terrible, and it's impressive that we're still in the playoff hunt with the team we have this year. That's all fine and dandy, though make no mistake, it really does help that we still have Dats and Z hanging around. But that's also the tragedy, as we still have Pavs and Z, which almost by default make this team competitive every night. And if a few more pieces were in place that could've been in place, this team wouldn't consistently still be a team that could make the playoffs, but a team that could legitimately challenge for the Cup every year. I know you don't win every year, but while you have the benefit of having Dats and Z on your team, it'd be nice to think a little more than, "we have a good chance of making the playoffs," and Hossa, a Lidstrom successor at least in title of legitimate number one defenseman, less old scraps and more youth would've been a big step in that direction. And if we had those things, we might've had a better opportunity of landing solid veteran help willing to play for less to win a Cup. Or a better opportunity of signing a much sought-after free-agent defenseman with potential to contribute right away. But we don't have that same leverage anymore. That didn't happen last summer, and it didn't happen while Holland was chatting with DeKeyser. That happened because over the last four years, when it was clear to anyone willing to admit it that some of our guys wouldn't play forever, and some of our newer guys weren't so proven, when the team needed to be truly evolving, nothing was done.

Speaks volumes on our prospects, character of our team, and most importantly our coaching staff. I tip my hat off to the crew for making something out of this team. At the beginning of the season, people thought this was the year we would finally feel the transition stages. From the injuries we've endured and losing Lidstrom, Rafi, and Stuart on the backend.. wow... can't even complain about this team.

Watch out; giving props to any team or GM other than The Red Wings or Ken "I wish Bowman was still here" Holland is strictly forbidden in Red Wings nation...

That's what I keep telling Pens fans who are already planning the parade. It just takes ONE hot goalie and you're screwed. We had a much better team than the Avs in '99, we ran into Roy and lost. We had a much better team than Anaheim in 03, but Gigure was a wall, we lost. If the playoffs started today, they would be playing Lundqvist. The 7th seeded team is NJ with Brodeur. Those guys are more than capable of stealing a series.

Well the media sure fooled us, a little early on the April fools joke. He's going to Boston for sure, wake up and he's a Penguin..

Sorry but I respectfully disagree, the decline started after the last cup run and it was obvious. Thanks to be cap the Wings couldn't keep their roster, not only would they have done so otherwhise Detroit would for sure have fixed the wholes and try again next year with an even better roster thanks but not, the cap destroyed that. In the end the Wings ended up with a worse team than before - i.e 2 round exit against the Sharks (first of two in a row) - so the cap is not only an excuse it is fact. Looking back it really is unbelievable how much quality this team has lost over such a short amount of time, no other team had to deal with something like this and yet Babcock is doing a tr emendous job, by still keeping them somewhat in the hunt for a playoff spot. Some weeks ago (during the lockout) I did post how this roster would look like if the best owner in all of sports wouldn't be handicaped by a small little guy who knows nothing about hockey. Do I blame Holland for standing pat too long? Yes, but since last year he is trying to improve this team, going hard after Suter and now Dan DeKeyser though in the end signing players is a two way street (offer/sign it). That said I can't wait till this team will be loaded again and face the Penguins in the Stanley Cup Finals....with a different outcome this time! This is an original 6 franchise, this is hockeytown

Did I miss something? I though Brent Burns was a Dman? Or did he do the reverse Byfuglien and move up to forward? I'd like to see a huge win by the Wings to send a message that they are in fact still a beast and 10+ steals by Datsyuk, all on Joe Thornton.

Wow. And I like Iginla. Guess I won't be liking him this year. Too bad, really. He's one of those guys I'd have rather seen on a team where I could be kind of glad if he won the Cup, but not really glad since it wasn't the Wings. Sort of like Hossa winning it with Chicago after coming so close twice. Maybe next year, Iggy, depending on where you end up.

Pittsburgh just trolled the entire world.

That is a ridiculous standard, and if you were to apply it to any other GM in the history of any sport you're not going to find even one you think is adequate. In the span of a few seasons we lost Yzerman, Shanahan, Hull, Robitaille, Fischer, Larionov, Hasek, among others, plus maybe the best coach of all time. Chelios went from a Norris candidate to depth player, Draper and Maltby from invaluable role-players to guys filling out the roster. We'd lost in the first round, second round, and first round. We had a lot of good prospects and could afford to lose some. Plus we made the transition to the cap era. Holland made some moves, some were decent, some not so much. We signed some cast-offs that no one else wanted, brought up some young guys, signed one big UFA. It worked and we won a Cup. It wasn't luck that we had a bunch of cheap guys. It's what you have to do in the cap era. Then we had to start paying guys and trying to fill the rest of the roster with bargains. Some of those guys were decent, some not so much. It's just not reasonable to expect that we should have had a replacement for Lidstrom before he left. The only way to get that is to get lucky, either with a prospect or someone else's cast off. If you want someone already proven, you would have had to give up a lot to get them, and we couldn't have fit them under the cap. We would have had to make the team worse in previous years. Maybe in hindsight you can say they should have, because we haven't done much in the playoffs anyway, but really you all would have just been bitching about mismanagement back then. Some people are completely backward in thinking that the biggest needs, the biggest losses, should be the easiest to fill. Fact is, those holes have the fewest available options and the least margin for error. That's why almost no one, in any sport, in any era in history, has much success filling them without a hitch. Nothing Holland could have done would have been better than landing Suter and Parise (particularly since we wouldn't have had to give up anything), and he put us in position to make a strong play for both of them. Unfortunately, it didn't work out. But we're still in a good position to add more, and we still have a well stocked prospect pool. Maybe, probably even, things will get worse before they get better. That's the nature of the beast. We need stars and those almost always come through the draft. Once we have our next generation of stars, then will come the time to start making trades and looking for a good UFA or two to put us over the top. Hopefully at that time, some of the young prospects we have now will emerge to fill some roles at bargain prices. Sure, we could make a move or two now and it might work out. Or not. Look at the Rangers, Philly, San Jose... Maybe Holland could have done better. But who actually has? Pittsburgh? Cup winner, last three years lost in the 2nd, 1st, and 1st round. Found some nice fits at forwards, including one absolute steal of a trade, wrecked their defense. Looking good this year, maybe they'll go somewhere, maybe not. Their best players can't stay healthy, probably going to have cap troubles again in a couple years. Chicago? Cup winner, sat watching the TV hoping for Dallas to lose to put them in the playoffs the following year. Two first round losses. Looking good this year... Likely cap trouble again next year. Boston? Cup winner, lost in the first round last year. Looking good... maybe some cap trouble next year. LA? Cup winner, had to fight down to the wire to make the playoffs, likely the same this year. About $15M to fill almost half their roster next year... Anaheim? Doing great this year after plenty of struggles since their Cup win. Big commitments to their stars likely to create some cap issues down the road... Anyone else... Pretty much all that separates us from any of them is they have young stars while ours are aging. Most of them were irrelevent not long ago, and will likely end up back there before too long. Come back when their stars are aging and see how much better they do than Holland. I bet none of them do half so well. What Holland has already done proves that he's a great GM. He's had some luck, and a great staff to work with, but he's still been great. No matter how successfully we make it through our current transition or the next.

No agent would have allowed him to sign without hearing the other offers. I agree that just because he grew up a Wings fan doesn't make his signing with them a forgone conclusion but it will play a large factor. He'll do whats best for his career but considering he met with Detroit first, and then met with them again after everyone else it seems to me his agent is just using the competition to get as much (promise wise) out management as he can.

esteef