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I know this was directed at Crymson and stuff, but, I just want to say, I'm really not sure why there's this great big battle over Cleary. Like, I get that people think other people went, like, way overboard in trashing him. But...so what? What's the angle? "HE HAS HEART. AND WILLINGNESS." OK, got it. Thing is, he's also over-the-hill. His knees don't work. The season's 82+ games long. And even Ken Holland - Ken Holland! - seems to have jumped off the Cleary ship, so to speak. I dunno. I guess I feel like, if we've got a problem with our net-font game (and we do), and Dan Cleary is, like, the only guy keeping it afloat...that's a serious, serious problem. And the solution, I think, isn't to just hold Cleary until he's 65 years old. Maybe we get exposed, and, in turn, pounded. I'd be ok with that, because (you'd think) it would force Holland's hand (i.e. he'd have to pick someone up. Maybe, I dunno, a legitimate power-forward. Or, hey, maybe one of the 8 billion "grinder-type" guys we have could step up to the proverbial plate.) I think Bertuzzi will be counted on to take that beating in front of the net, to a reasonable extent. I think Tatar likes playing in that area. I think Franzen has shown a willingness.... I think Weiss could be Cleary 2.0, in a good way. I think Alfredsson is gonna battle like the badass-old-geezer-who-just-pissed-off-an-entire-city that he is. I don't see much of a need for Cleary, and I think on this much, at least, we can all agree.

One player to rule them all. (Sorry, couldn't resist.) (Oh, don't act like you weren't thinking it.)

Let's account for the fact that an nhl puck is actually 7.065 square inches you have 24 feet opening to score on, which in inches is 3456 sq. inches, 7.065/3456 = .002 which is .2% of the available space to score. now assuming your soccer ball is a size 5 that would be 68-70 cm, so A = 4πr^2 (1,156 cm) = 14,527 sq cm and a soccer net opening is 222967 cm square x 7432.24 cm square = 1657144256.08 cm square. 14,527/1,657,144,256.08 = .0009, so .09% Edit: typo, and I am dumb

I think we all like Cleary. But as a role player. Babcock likes to pretend he's a top 6 scorer. If we didn't have such a backlog of players I'm sure most of us would be fine with him returning if he was kept in his proper role.

So, wait, pipe dreams are allowed? Dustin Brown Ryan Callahan Dan Girardi Milan Lucic Wayne Simmonds et al.

or buy from other fans who have extra tickets. I know I'm going to have extra tickets for the WC and GLI. Along with looking for extra Alumni game tickets myself.

Milan Lucic.

I like Kane....but thats a LOT to give up for him. Mule, a first and Mrzek (goalie if the future)???.....I think that might be too much for PATRICK Kane.

Cleary. No one could replace Homer's skills in screening and deflecting pucks but Cleary picked up a lot of the slack left by him. Fearless in front of the net, retrieving pucks from the corners, not afraid to go to any part of the ice. And Cleary gave a lot more to this team than veteran leadership. To be clear I'm not saying the Wings should re-sign him. They're neck deep in forwards and I have doubts about Cleary's health going forward. But the vitriol for him here was ridiculous. People acted like it was Cleary's fault he was getting PP time and not a shortcoming of the roster. He's a warrior and was second on the team in scoring behind only Zetterberg. And those points weren't luck. You make your own luck through hard work, which Cleary did every shift. What he did wasn't pretty, but it was effective. My point was in terms of how people talk about Cleary, it's reminiscent of how they talked about Homer near the end, only worse. It's always interesting to see what players become almost like a mascot here who can do no wrong, and how people start to sour on other players and it quickly snowballs.