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Your cynicism is always such a ray of desperation around here

"Class" is a big reason Detroit was eliminated without so much as a whimper.

I like Gus, but Mrazek will do something you rarely see on this team. He will make a high paid veteran (Howard) nervous and play for his job every night. We need more of this - hungry young guys who have their sights on taking away other people's jobs. It is good for the entire team and organization. Plus, I am certain Mrazek will be our starting goalie in a year or two at most. Howard can't compete with this kids attitude or skill. Mark my words.

I've been a 'Wings fan for 33years. The Red Wings have played with class, dignity and style for so many years, and it makes me proud to be a wings fan! Watching this year's playoffs has been disgusting, from Duncan Keith's "wakey, wakey" taunting of the obviously concussed David Backes, after two, vicious, non called slashes, one of them on Backes(probably having him hear"footsteps", setting up Seabrook), and Matt Cooke, not much needs to be said there, how about Marchand and his "which leg did I hurt?" moment. There is no point to a regular season if it is no holds barred in the post season. I'd rather watch my team get bounced in the first round, than watch them play with no class and make it to the finals. Detroit has won championships by staying classy, and I'm OK waiting until they can win with class, not the garbage that Boston and Chicago feel fits their fans! I grew up in Ken Holland's hometown, my Dad was close with his Dad, all class acts, there is pride in winning with integrity, pride is nonexistent without integrity! STAY CLASSY DETROIT!!

It's all moot, though. Whether he was our best prospect or just one of our better prospects, the point is that the return for Calle Jarnkrok and a second-round pick was a few games from David Legwand (unless he re-signs. Though, even then....) The only way that doesn't hurt right now is if we rationalize it. "He was gonna go back to Sweden anyway." "He's not that good anyway." "We have too many centers anyway." "We need to get bigger anyway." meh

Oh, so because of yesterdays turnover Franzen is now labeled as an overall turnover machine? Yeah, that was a bad give away. But it was also just one of only two give aways he had in the PO's. He also lead the team in take-aways during the PO's with 4. Now those stats do have some recording errors, but they still don't paint the picture of a guy who consistently gives away pucks. Sincerely, Guy who only reads boxscores

No, not in the way he was used. If he was moved up to be a #1 or #2 line center, OK, but he was used as just another grinder when he obviously has more skill than that.

Do you watch bball or football? Hockey is THE classiest.

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I would like to see the Rangers get as far as possible, especially for Dominic Moore.

What a clown. Do you watch hockey? Fil plays defense and actually makes an effort. Franzen floats floats and does some more floating.

If Legwand re-signs and gets used in a more appropriate manner by the coach its a good trade. If not we just about lost. We needed a centre...and there weren't any others moving. Much of the criticism or desire not to re-sign Legwand is on the assumption that Weiss will be back to 50+ points form next year, which is unlikely even if it does happen the year after. With Z's back playing up more often, a Centre who can contribute now is important, and the captain will be mostly playing wing from here on in I think. Of course this comes down to how important you think the playoff streak is & how high you rate Jarnkrok. For me the streak is massively important 1) The money - even our first round exit essentially pays for Legwand's annual salary 2) Marketing prestige. The longest current playoff streak is a big thing. 3) Player prestige. Added to the lure of Dats & Z, and the new pipeline of kids, the willingness of a GM to trade away prospects/picks to ensure that you make the playoffs sends a message to FAs and current players. We are totally committed to giving ourselves a shot at the playoffs EVERY year. Most teams will rely on geography, quality of life or current roster levels to attract players. The Wings are one of a very small selection who will take risks to make the playoffs. And of course, who knows what happens in the playoffs. Rask gets Howard Flu and Chara tweaks something and suddenly its a much more even series. Gotta buy a ticket etc. Also, much as I like Jarnkrok, his value to us wasn't as great as we once thought. Another small playmaker in a team quite well stocked in 2 way playmakers, in a team desperate to get bigger, a desperation increased by the emergence of Tatar and Nyquist as two more small NHL quality forwards. I also think the leaps forward of AA & Janmark (gorgeous assist yesterday) made this trade more palatable. And if we draft a quality centerman this year or next, and Legwand re-signs Jarnkrok will have to get near his ceiling to make us really regret it. Its like Adam Oates. He went on to have a great career. His departure freed up space for Feds, Primeau (who got us shanny) and Larianov. Indeed His demands for a raise at STL led to the merry go round that made Shanny possible. We won 3 cups and he didn't....ultimately even the worst trade in wings history paved the way for the dynasty that followed.

I'm so sick of hearing about shea weber trade talks,but i have to deal with it,because they aren't gonna go away

That's why I font like that radio station. Just look at those corsi stats someone posted. Literally every defense man plays better when they are playing with Smith.

Pretty much this. So much of his game is based on his speed, and he had no space to use it. The Bruins are disciplined defensively, and at no point in the series where they chasing a game. Its also I think that his style of play doesn't translate very well to the PP where you're stationary a lot. I will say this though - if he'd been paired with a healthy Zetterberg things would have been very different for him.

If you have all white collar workers, nothing gets done, despite a lot of conversation. If its all blue collar, there's plenty of sweat but often pointlessly. Wings fans endless bitching online everywhere about Franzen is often missing the point. He's always been a bit floaty, and always been streaky, and has always been massively vulnerable to losses of confidence. But when he was having his good streaks in a better team at a better time, no-one minded. He's not the man to be THE guy. He's best as A guy, and at his cap hit, that's what he should be. People screaming lazyness are being stupid. You can't be an elite athlete in any sport if you are lazy. The management have always spoke of his professionalism. He just doesn't have a high enough compete or confidence levels to maximise his talents, and because he occasionally goes on incredible runs of form, people equate his off periods with a lack of effort. Apart from his first season as a 4th line scrub, he's always been a reasonably defensively responsible perimeter player with the size and skill to surprise. But after those two great playoff series, fans see him as first line power forward and judge him by those expectations. But despite showing the ability from time to time, he isn't that player. And never has been. He's a shy team first guy, who doesn't deal with being in the spotlight, but as a 3rd wheel on a line with a shooter and a passer (preferably one with speed and the other with serious intensity) he can thrive. He's frustrating, disappointing and still very good in a secondary role. It really doesn't help that every time we see him get real chemistry on a line, Babcock breaks that line up. Maybe the coach can see the drop off coming, but he doesn't work with Dats or Helm very well, but does ok with Legwand and Zetterburg, and definitely has chemistry with Nyquist. So he barely gets to play with them...... There is no doubt that his injury problems, particularly the resultant shying away from contact for a while, are a concern, but the guy still put up 40ish points in 50ish games on a depleted team...and his PPG rate in the playoffs was as good as anyone not named D or Z. But he's the scapegoat because our kids give us hope for the future, and our higher paid players have all been injured, and the others have proved their mediocrity over time. The guy makes less than Weiss, less than Legwand, marginally more than Quincy and not a lot more than Sammy, and yet he's a disaster. Guy's salary/PPG since his new contract is as good as anyone not on an ELC in that time. And yet we should pay him 20m to go away to a rival team for nothing, while not yet having a replacement, because we are worried about a PPG decline that hasn't yet happened on a team that has spent the last 15 years specialising on squeezing the last drops out of aging pros. If it all goes **** up in 2-3 years, I'm sure we can do a deal to LTIR him. Lucic costs 50% more and players like him are pretty hard to get hold of in the first place. He also came close with 2 good scoring chances and forced 2 really good saves from Rask. But of course no-one else's turnovers count. No-one is saying he is perfect. It just makes no strategic sense to get rid of him at this point unless something else is happening for sure. People trying to turn this into a black or white either/or need to look at the reality. Until we have someone to replace him, someone has to score those points. Dead wood leaves, cap goes up and worst case scenario we're stuck with and over-priced 3rd liner who occasionally goes on good runs.

Uncle Gary sez: "It's playing within the rules (as long as you don't get caught)". Uncle Gary also sez: "We still have the best officials of any of the major sports". Uncle Gary, with his super sense of hearing, also sez: "What was that you said, I heard you. 'You wouldn't know there were rules by watching the officiating'. let me tell you something...we have plenty of rules, we just don't have anyone competent to call them. Damn, I promised myself I wasn't going to tell the truth in the Playoffs!"

He carried the team for 2 months is what happened. Not to mention he was given no space in the playoffs, and the line when he was scoring those goals was Franzen - Legwand - Nyquist which never played once together from the last 3 games of the year, and all into the playoffs. Babcock f***ed up.

Griffins are getting back Sheahan, Jurco, and Oulette for their playoff run. I thought Glendenning was also a possibility, but oh well. Go Griffins!

Are you implying Legwand is a Terminator, sent from the future to prevent Evgeni Malkin from being able to impregnate Sarah Connors of Stanley Cup of Chowder?

As I've said before, I'm fairly ambivalent. But its always easier to identify with support the guys who give it total effort every game while actually getting sweet FA done. There is no doubt Franzen is in decline and his health/personality issues are increasingly becoming a factor. Equally, I read the comments on here after and during games (not last night!) and wonder if people are watching different games. He's defensively pretty responsible, still makes good rushes and despite his finishing being all kinds of awful over the last month, he's still been getting chances every game. He's missed with too many, but he had as many decent chances as anyone in our roster not named Datsyuk or a speedster with stone hands. The criticism he receives online is not a fair reflection of his game, up and down and declining as he is. If he was getting paid 1m less, skated around like a lunatic and put up half the reg season points with a similar plus minus he'd be a lot more accepted. There are obvious concerns going forwards. But equally, he's still worth the money now. There is certainly an argument for buying him out, but how does Holland convince Chris Ilitch of that. "So Franzen,,,,we're worried about his cap hit 2-6 years from now. So what you should do is spend $24m of your money buying him out while we can, despite the fact that he still puts up 0.65 PPG in the reg season, and likely will remain above .5ppg for the next couple of years, despite the fact that not only do we have roster short of points scorers and very little with any trade worth AND the fact that we are finally losing the majority of the AWFUL contracts I've been handing out to FA's over the last 3 years. Oh yeah and Franzen's cap hit is still less than my latest FA signing who hasn't played most of the year, has been invisible when he has, and is still injured. And We'll have about 10-15m cap space this summer after signing our RFAs, depending on Alfie. Would love to be the fly on the wall for that one..... Getting rid of Franzen resolves a problem down the line, but adds to our current ones. If the playoff streak is as important to the management and board as the Legwand deal would suggest, I just can't see it happening. And don't forget, if things get as bad as people fear, there is always LTIR for his concussions or 'issues'. For me, it just doesn't make good management sense to buy him out UNLESS, there is more information regarding his injury or mental issues than we know of. It would also probably help if Babcock's line combo's actually encouraged chemistry rather than destroying it when its been established. Franzen plays a ton better with Nyquist or Zetts or both than he does with Dats or Helm. No problem with this....especially as heating up can get rewarded with more ice time. Seeing as its so visible when he hits beast mode, it should be easy enough for management to juggle. He makes a very good if slightly overpaid 3rd liner or a massively inconsistent and thus unreliable good-ish value second liner. Its also worth remembering that his cap hit was back loaded. Pay him less than he's worth for 2-3 years to pay him more than he's worth the rest.

I agree with the basic premise of your post. The "New NHL" is driven by ratings and this style of goonery, diving etc is at the root of it all. This Bruins Habs series is going to be cheap shots, diving and flopping followed by coaches and players whining about said dives etc, but folks are going to tune in because of it.

Think he'll re-sign? I think Babcock burying him on the fourth line was a huge middle finger to him.

Mrazek has done everything he needs to do in every league/tourney he has ever played in up to this point. When he was called up for the Wings, he was as solid as anyone could expect of him. In fact, in the nine games that he played in this season, he posted a better GAA and save% (1.74, .927) than Howard and Gustavsson, and is tied for the team lead in shutouts with two. Granted, nine games isn't that large of a sample size, but the only way to get him more games is to bring him on as a backup. I think he has demonstrated that he is ready.

So we need a new coach, a new GM, a new top Dman, a new top scorer, and a new starting goalie? Agreed? Do we need a new logo too?