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I'm still Pissed at the asteroids for killing the dinosaurs

According to what was posted on Bleacher report, from a bunch of different sources, Ovie had an MRI and there are NO torn legiments. Should be fine in a couple weeks. May play later in the tourney.....

We can't be a talent factory for other teams. And as for Nyquist not scoring as much as during his streak, he doesn't need to... during that time he was almost a goal a game player, that's something no one in this entire league is, if he scores half or even a third of that he'll stil be a great player for us.

In a way, it's sort of poetic. They rolled over a Bishop-less Bolts team. Their whole thing now is "No one respects us. We deserve everyone's respect. We proved ourselves. We're an elite team." I guess we'll see.

The Ducks are loaded in goal, and Gibson is a fantastic prospect. They would be near the bottom of teams I'd expect to pitch for Miller.

Call me crazy but I don't think we need to trade the farm for a "sniper" especially when we have someone like Mantha who could step in this year or next year. Someone who could pot 35-40 goals would be awesome, don't get me wrong, but look at it in the grand scheme of things. We have 4 guys next year that are still relatively new to the team that could all score around 20 goals. Goose 22-24 goals. Tatar 21-22 Sheahan 18-20 Jurco 18-20 Pulks could probably be a 15-20 goal scorer in is first couple years if given PP time as well, imo. I would much rather have balanced scoring and guys on three lines who can net us some goals rather than relying on one or two guys to get the job done, not to mention these kids are going to keep progressing and becoming better players. If we could add someone in FA than I'm all for it, but I don't see the need in trading away Goose or Tatar for a guy who MAYBE will net 10 more goals than them. Now I would trade away Tats in a package for a top Dman, but that's a different story.

WTF? Both had better records, more points and are still playing in the PO's! That is BETTER than us. As for Babs, he is a great coach, has been a great coach, and will be a great coach. Be it for us, some other NHL team, college team, HS team, mite team, whatever HE wants to do. He has earned it.

Don't forget he also got the Ducks to the Finals in 2003. With hardly an impressive lineup they swept the Red Wings in the first round and took NJ to 7 games in the finals

I can see nyquist putting up 70 points/year by then

I absolutely think there's a possibility that Babcock could leave next year or sometime in the next 2-3 years, and I do think there's something to the fact that he stated that he doesn't want to sign an extension right now. I don't think that means that he's absolutely leaving next year though at all. I don't think there's anything to the rumors going around about Babcock being set on leaving next year. I don't think he has any plans to leave at this moment, and I certainly don't think he knows where he'd go. Even if Babcock did have some semblance of a real plan, I don't think anyone writing these articles is informed at all about such matters, and are just speculating because Babcock is generally considered to be the top coach in the game right now, the Wings have been struggling, and he's not interested in signing an extension at the moment. I'd bet that what Babcock's said about not wanting to sign an extension is where any legitimate information about the matter ends. That said, again, I think there's something to that. If I were speculating, I'd say it's a message to the Wings management more than anything. Holland wants Babcock to say and has said that he wants to talk about an extension with him this summer. Babcock is the one who at least at this point has nixed the idea and said he'd do one-year deals after his current contract is up. So if Babcock leaves anytime soon, it's going to be his decision. If Holland has expressed to the media that he wants to talk to Babcock this summer about an extension, and Babcock has expressed to the press that he's not interested in doing so and wants to do one-year deals after this contract, to me, that's Babcock sending a message to Ken Holland and the rest of the Wings management. I don't think he's saying for sure that he's going to leave, and honestly, I don't think he wants to leave. But I don't think there's any way to interpret what's been said other than to think that Babcock wants to make sure the Wings know that he has options and he's willing to keep the door open on them. Babcock came to Detroit because it's one of the top organizations in all of sports and we've built a tradition in the last twenty years of being successful and always going for it. But things have been in a steady decline over the last few years and Holland thus far really hasn't done anything to suggest he's willing and able to turn it around. If things continue as they have, I don't expect that Babcock will want to stick around, and I do think that's the message he is sending to management. If this was an internally planned transition to bring Blashill up to take over for Babcock, why would Holland be talking about trying to sign Babs to an extension? Why would Babcock be saying he's not interested in that and will sign one-year deals after this contract expires next summer? Sure, it could all just be a smokescreen, but I really doubt it. I think Babcock is sending a message that he needs to see a real change and more of an effort from management to put a solid roster together. He knows he can get a job anywhere, and he knows that Holland knows that. And as much as the Wings don't want to lose Blashill, I don't think anyone in management wants to see Babcock move to a team like the Penguins, though I say that for example only, not because I buy the rumors at all. Babcock has had to coach a team of Griffins players into the playoffs now two years in a row, while guys taking up decent chunks of cap space sit in the press box either injured or simply not good enough to crack the lineup. All the while, he has to hear Holland talk about how everyone is too expensive and none of the deals made sense. Like everyone else, do you really think Babcock isn't wondering what part of Holland's strategy the last four years then makes sense? He may truly have a good relationship with Holland, but he's no fool at the end of the day. Cap space has gone unused. Cap space has been wasted on guys that can't contribute and sit in the press box or play in Grand Rapids. Your so-called stars can't be relied upon to produce. The defense has withered to the point where the pairings read more like a joke someone would have made three years ago. We would've all laughed, because even though the idea of losing Rafalski, Stuart and Lidstrom sounded terrible, it could never get that bad. Welcome to 2014, where yesterday's doom and gloom jokes about the defense have taken shape in reality, but we still were signing more forwards in August last year even though we already had too many. If Holland turns it around and gives Babcock a roster that features a real defense and a slightly refreshed offense, and it becomes clear once again that we're going to actually take the idea of being a top team seriously, I fully expect Babcock to stay, even if it means losing Blashill. If we see a repeat of the last four summers and another roster full of holes on defense, I think it's very likely Babcock will leave. Maybe he really will take a non-NHL job; who knows? As said, I doubt Babcock really even knows, though I do know for certain that Art Regner nor anyone else writing about hockey on blogs or in papers has absolutely any idea at all. But given what's been said by Holland and Babcock, I think it's clear that Babs is at a point where he's willing to throw his weight around and send the message that he is not content to continue to polish turd rosters just enough to hopefully eek into the playoffs and lose.

"ET" I hope ur getting the same laugh out of this that I am lol

To be clear: it seems safe to say there's very little, if anything, to these rumors. This is likely just a combination of Babs being a living Canadian legend and poorly run franchises looking for an easy fix-up. If LGW thought for a moment that Drew Doughty might be bought out, we'd be all effing over that s*** with our custom capgeek rosters and homer logic ("Well, we need a #1 on the back end, and Babs coached him at the Olympics. Man, now that I think about it, I bet he's demanding out of LA cuz he wants to be a Red Wing. Yeah, that has to be it!")

What are you basing this on? I'm inclined to believe that, if anything, he likes the challenge set before him: to prove his true coaching might by steering this team through a quick "rebuild," back to true contention, and, ultimately, back to being the class of the league. (Imagine the SCF battles we could have with Chicago.) If he jumps ship to a contender and wins a Cup, then everyone turns around and says, "Oh, that Mike Babcock, so overrated. Clearly he can only win the Cup with a totally stacked roster and he knows it. That's why he left Detroit. He was never the driving force behind their post-Bowman greatness. He doesn't know how to develop young talent and turn them into stars. He lets other people do that for him and then he swoops in and takes all the glory and everyone showers him with praise. This is the guy who wanted a washed up Cleary over Nyquist. What a phony." I think if we're still in the West, we're looking at a genuinely long road back to the top. Not necessarily so in the East. Michel Therrien is not a better coach than Mike Babcock, nor is Alain Vigneault, and their respective teams aren't much better than our current team, and our current team is about as bad as it's going to get for us, I feel.

Yep Nyquist is 25 after all, he is clearly not going to get any better...

Retweeted by Bob McKenzie Slava Malamud ‏@SlavaMalamud 2h Alex Ovechkin is back in the team hotel. Walking on his own, no crutches, but limping. Team doctor says it's "better than expected" #Caps Retweeted by Slava Malamud ‏@SlavaMalamud 2h Ovechkin will not be leaving Minsk. The team is mum on diagnosis, but will miss the next game for sure. #Caps

I was kidding. I haven't let WWII go yet. I tend to hold grudges for a long time, even if things happened before I was born. Don't even get me started on the Romans.

This is from the Bruins eulogy:

Nothing he said was inaccurate. He said the Wings future was full of potential...Not full of NHL 1st liners. Just because they have potential doesn't mean they will all reach it. Right now the Wings prospect pool is ranked 3rd in the NHL, not bad for a team that has picked in the top 20 only twice in the past couple decades.

What's funny is the Hawks have become masters of subtle interference if anyone has. Watch when the Kings are trying to gain the blueline, or as the Hawks are breaking out of the zone. These playoffs refs are letting a lot of interference like that go in general. Especially at the blueline.

interesting to hear the nbc crew call out the blackhawks for diving when edzo isn't in the booth

Not that anyone has done this yet, but I kind of laugh when people bring up how other teams are built through the draft, then you look at their top players and they're almost all drafted in the top 10. Then you look at Detroit. Their top few scorers other than Alfredsson were drafted 121, 210, 97, 60, and 171 overall, their top 3 D 29, 291, and undrafted, and their starting goalie was taken 64th. That's one player of their top 9 players taken in the first round. The Pens, on the other hand, have gotten almost nobody outside of the top 5 in the last dozen years.

Too old! NEXT

Go whichever team can beat the Hawks

No words. https://twitter.com/MrsJoki/status/466669112244985857/photo/1

That's not true. Cleary was scratched before he was injured. Bertuzzi only got in 1 playoff game when no one was looking effective. He was playing before late in the season because we were missing pretty much everyone and the kids were still in the lineup so he wasn't taking their spots. Beware of the grass on the other side.