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Hope he can come back, he'd really help our top 6 if he's healthy.

I won't miss Edzo

^oh boy. Don't care about first pick because anyone could get it. DO care about a playoff streak because not every team can have that.

Should be Cleary. Won't be, though.

Bettuzzi's biggest asset, and one our team has desperately needed is his size and puck protection. Our team is not strong on the puck along the perimeter (aside from Dats and Z who are regularly double-teamed). The Wings play much better when they can hold onto the puck down low and dictate the speed of the game. Bertuzzi is good at hanging onto pucks and moving them to open ice, and its going to give Pavel and Z more time and space to be creative. Having said that, this guy is on a multi-year contract right now if I'm not mistaken, and I think it may be a better option to wait and make sure he's as healthy ad possible before jumping into the chaos at 70-80%. But I'm not the doctor nor the player, so it ain't my call.

I'll take an 7th or 8th place finish plz. Then I can laugh at all of the hateful pricks (Leaf's fans) that are dying for the streak to end. AND that still gives Detroit a 16-19th overall pick, provided they lose in the first round. BUT if they win a round or two, then that's awesome too. Basically, it's all good.

Its pretty crazy how hard it is to see a player's true value until he's not playing anymore. We saw it last year with Ericsson, and Helm is pretty obvious. Bert is certainly not the best player in the league, but he is valuable to the team, especially with how poorly the offense has been doing. I was never wild about his latest contract, but the offense needs him right now and for the final push.

Playoffs! Never give up the ship! esteef

Um, go Hawks.

I will punch someone in the jeans.

The thing is, we were less and less competitive before all of our major losses. We had two early exits from the playoffs before Rafalski retired and three before losing Stuart and Lidstrom. They were already trending downward before the losses and they're continuing that trajectory in the wake of said absences. In one sense I suppose you're right, we're close to making the playoffs so we are competitive to an extent, but on the other hand I have a hard time feeling like we're all that competitive when we're competing with Dallas and Columbus for a playoffs spot and we're barely above .500. I'm not trying to be contradictory or anything, obviously no other GM has Ken Holland's resume, but to say he's currently the best GM in hockey is sort of a nod to his cumulative career and not because of anything he's done recently...which, of course, is nothing.

Might be best to wait until more information is released before jumping to unfounded conclusions.

I want to keep the streak alive. The record is 29 years and I believe we could reach that mark if we just survive and retool for another year or two and squeak in.

No. Look at the list of North American names on that list. They are the players taken in the first 3 rounds. They are also players Holland personally saw before the Wings drafted them. It's not hard to hit an NHLer with the first three rounds, and Jesus, during his tenure as head of scouting, our 1st-3rd round drafts were spotty. Curtis Bowen, Kory Kocur, Jesse Wallin ring a bell? Throw in the fact that guys like Sillinger, Pushor, etc were high round picks.....whew, glad we had Kenny at the helm for those picks. Players in the 5th round on are players he (usually) didn't see play and were found by Hakan Andersson. Hakan Andersson has made Holland look really good for a really long time. What, again, has Ken Holland done SINCE the implementation of the salary cap? He held together a Hakan Andersson found team for a while, then slowly let it crumble away. The biggest move he's made post-lockout #1? Bertuzzi? (I distinctly remember Marian Hossa's agent was the one who called Holland in 2008, and pitched the one-year deal). Beyond that, it's been a recurring cycle of re-acquiring players who didn't work the first time (Hello, Todd Gill.....Mikael Samuelsson.....Kyle Quincey......Jason Williams.....Ty Conklin.....Joey MacDonald.....)

Agreed. The Rangers draft well, they are just prone to impatience and readily blow up their team for the piece that they think will get them over. See: The Rick Nash trade

I really want to see #44 again

The new system had nothing to do with Shero constructing his team in fact Ray Shero had little to do with constructing that team, being terrible for a long period of time constructed that team for him. He took over a team that had selected in the top 5, 5 years in a row, with 4 of them being in the top 2. The biggest adversity he's had to face was a problem of his own making when he had to trade Staal away because he couldn't fit all his top 5 picks under the salary cap. Let's see him rebuild the team when those players start retiring, and have him do so without the luxury of having any top 15 draft picks and without missing the playoffs. Maybe then he can start being compared to Holland. Also if Holland doesn't get any credit for the teams draft choices because he employs a scout who recommends which players to pick, then no team's GM should ever get credit for a draft choice. They all employ scouts. Below is a list of players drafted while Holland was in charge of amateur scouting. If I follow your logic Holland should get credit for the cups in 97, 98 and 2002 since he drafted the core of those teams. He also made several trades in those years that provided key parts to those cup winning teams. Yves Racine Sheldon Kennedy Mike Sillinger Nicklas Lidstrom Sergei Fedorov Dallas Drake Vladimir Konstantinov Keith Primeau Slava Kozlov Jason York Martin Lapointe Jamie Pushor Chris Osgood Mike Knuble Darren McCarty Dan McGillis Anders Eriksson Mathieu Dandenault Tomas Holmstrom Holland is the best GM in the history of the franchise, arguably the best in the history of the NHL, and a guaranteed first ballot Hall of Fame Inductee.

If we make playoffs, there's always a chance Datsyuk or Franzen will explode, and with the right matchuos this team could go to the second round, maybe Conference finals. Just so long as we don't meet Minnesota or Chicago. I just have a bad feeling about those two teams matching up against the Wings.

Seems like overpayment. I like Howie and all but he's still prone to a lot of stinkers. Would rather some of that money go to upgrading the D.

We have Abdelkader on our top line. I'm sorry, but I'm not searching for answers as to why we can't score. Abdelkader is a 3rd line player at best.

Can we keep the talk about Murphy's alleged alcoholism to a minimum? I know it doesn't really violate any forum rules, and it's just an honest discussion, but we have no indication whatsoever that he has a drinking problem. For all we know he's a teetotaler. I'd hate to see LGW become known as the forum that dragged Larry Murphy's name through the mud for no reason whatsoever. I feel like the speculation started out innocently enough, but it's picked up some steam and it's suddenly become no longer speculation.

That's a bad reputation that may or may not have had SOME truth to it at times in Washington, but ask any Carolina fan and they will say it's definitely not true this season. Actually he's been praised for his hard work, even defensively. And of course he's putting up points. It's a lot of money but it could turn out to be worth it. Looks like Semin and Staal have really found eachother.

Can't wait to see him back in the lineup.

Kronwall - Murphy Smith - Girardi Kindl - Quincey

Anybody see that Volunteer Energy commercial with Drapes and Osgood? If you have there's no way you can say either of those guys would be better in front of a camera than Murph with a straight face.