Leaderboard

The entertainment center (whatever that ends up being) is being built in a great place. Just on the other side of the freeway, it will be able to expand downtown into a currently blighted area, and just about connect the gap between downtown and midtown, which would make that entire stretch of Woodward healthy and thriving. Gilbert has been buying up tons of blighted real estate with his own projects of revitalization in mind, and it finally looks like Detroit has a competent mayor in Duggan, and he's already done a ton for the city in his short time in office. Detroit has been taking it on the chin for years, but we are on our way back up, and there are several dedicated parties looking to make sure these visions are met. Edit, the post I responded to has been deleted, which makes my post seem kinda random. Anyway, I'm excited about hearing what the details will be about this arena (and entertainment complex), and what it means for the area in general.

Last year we were hyped for a big comeback season. Then injuries beyond devastated us. Now we're a dark horse. I think that's good for this team. We are more than capable of proving were still contenders

Ha! Well said. To me, it says Holland knows Cleary is done but feels *just awful* about *cheating* Cleary out of that *big contract* he was *guaranteed* by the Flyers and is now simply trying to give the man money.

Before he hooked up with the Hawks though, he made it out of the 2nd round of the playoffs once in 10 years as a head coach. Losing to the eventual cup winner in a first round series doesn't really count for much to me. Babcock took out the 2003 Red Wings in 4 games with a Ducks roster that wasn't exactly stacked with stars and got them to game 7 of the Finals. in 2007 he took the Wings to the Conference finals, losing to a great team and eventual Cup winner in the Ducks . In 2008 he won the Cup In 2009 he went through the Ducks, still a very good team, and beat Quenneville's Blackhawks (the next year's Cup winner), then took the Pens (who people here don't like to admit but were a great team) to 7 games. In 2013 he took the Blackhawks to game 7 OT with a lineup that had no business hanging with the Hawks. I think Quenneville is a good coach, but I still put Babcock a notch above him.

"I think we need to let our young people grow. We signed enough players to buy our kids time in the minors. We have four d-men who are going to play here eventually and probably be upgrades on our roster. How much time do they need? We don’t know the answer. [ . . . . ] I didn’t like us in the playoffs last year against Boston, but we like what we have coming. And we like our kids. So the biggest thing is not to rush it. We could really use some puck-moving D. Well, we just happen to have some puck-moving D in the minors. Big guys that can skate. When are they ready? We’re sure not going to rush them, but if they’re capable of taking jobs they’re getting the jobs." - Babcock, from the interview Let's be honest - the Wings aren't in really bad shape. We've spent the past few seasons "retooling" in the sense that we've kept our core intact and kept the streak alive while also building up a very impressive stable of very promising young players like Nyquist and DeKeyser and Mantha and Mrazek and Sproul and Ouellet and Jurco and Athanasiou. The "youth movement" we've been waiting for is already happening; it's a slow drip rather than one great big swell. We're not rebuilding, not looking to tear everything down and ice a roster with 20 kids. We want what every Cup contender boasts these days: quality veteran leadership (with at least two elite franchise players at the top of the totem pole) and a small army of young studs on early, affordable contracts. And we're in a position to have that very soon. I hate the Quincey and Cleary re-signings. I hated that we brought back Samuelsson. I hated that Nyquist was stuck in Grand Rapids at the start of last season and that Jurco's going to get the same treatment this coming season. But, all things considered, this stuff isn't a big deal. What's important is that we're steadily building up to that kind of roster that can truly compete for the Cup. Again, I think that roster is within reach, we just have to be patient and not do anything really, genuinely, hugely, dangerously stupid. For example, as much as I want a Mike Green on this team, I do feel that moving, say, Nyquist for him would be really, genuinely, hugely, dangerously stupid, or at least close to it. Even if he were to have a great season, do you suppose he re-ups with us? I wouldn't be surprised if he were to re-sign with the Caps, giving them both Nyquist and Green. But I digress. Point is, it's going to be ok, maybe. I'm generally extremely cynical about the state of the Wings, but if I'm being objective, I like us, and I think we're only going to get better over the next two or three years. Mantha will save us all.

Bickell can go fly a kite....but Seabrook would be nice for the right deal.

You guys are seriously over rating him. He's projected as a 4th line agitator, not a second line scorer.

That's being everyone in our division plays the same teams the same number of times. Each team plays 2 games against every team in the opposite conference (home and away). Then they play each team more games if they are in the conference and even more if they are division rivals.

It's predsfan not preds guy

The source doesn't say Detroit has the easiest schedule because of the teams they play. Their measurement is all about back to backs

i would like a 1 million $ bonus for showing up to work for 10 days too

Signing with Griffins http://www.buckys5thquarter.com/wisconsin-badgers-mens-hockey/2014/7/18/5916295/mark-zengerle-ahl-grand-rapids-griffins

I'd put Mike Babcock at #1 and Darryl Sutter at #2 and "Coach Q" at #170. All Babcock does is achieve, Sutter is a mad genius, and Q has a mustache.

Quenneville also had two first round exits between those Stanley Cup winning Blackhawks teams. Also, prior to joining the Blackhawks, Quenneville has only coached a team past the second round once. That team was the Blues in 2001, and they were eliminated in the third round. I also disagree that Quenneville "did nearly the exact thing to us" during his tenure with the Blues. They never won more than two games against the Wings in any playoff series he coached. Before he had Toews, Kane, Hossa, Keith, etc etc Quennevile did nothing to warrant being a top coach, least of all win Stanley Cups, which seems to be the main focus of your argument as to why he and Sutter are better than Babcock. Sorry but I'm with Harold on this one. I don't think Quenneville is better than Babcock, even if he has won one more Cup.

It's obviously opinion at this point but there's no way I'd want Quenneville over Babcock. Sutter maybe. I think Sutter outcoached and exposed the Hawks this playoffs, and Babcock almost did it the previous year with a helluva lot less talent. Here's part of the reason I think Babs is a great coach. http://www.thescore.com/nhl/news/539181

Out toughest injuries were to Z, Pav and Weiss. All 3 are highly unlikely to miss as much time this season. It would be extreme bad luck. I also think Helm finally has a good chance to stay healthy now that he gets a full summer and camp to work out 100%., Injuries won't stop but we have to get some kind of 'break' from it eventually... we can't keep being one of the top 3 teams in mangames lost year after year, I refuse to believe we can't get a "healthy" season.

To respond to the earlier question around the shootout, I personally hate it because it has nothing to do with the game itself. It's like they finished the game and now we are going to do this thingy over here to decide the winner (skills comp). In terms of comparison to soccer, showing stupidity in one sport is not a good argument as to why it should be implemented in another. It's not a great argument for me as I can't stand soccer. I played as a kid up until hockey commitments were too great to do much of anything else, but in terms of watching, no thanks. The big reason they have a shootout is because the number of goals scored is generally very, very low. The possibility of a game going for hours without a goal is fairly high. My opinion for it being the world's most popular sport is because it requires the least amount of money to get into, therefore, almost every country around the world can participate. Popularity in "richer" countries isn't as high.....this is my assumption anyway, not backed up by any research at all. Back on topic, I don't think the NHL will look to remove the shootout, I think they simply want to try and limit the number of games that go to a shootout. I'm okay with that as I'm reasonable in thinking that they simply can't let games go on for too long waiting for someone to score. Even though that would be rare, they wouldn't want any going too long. And they don't want to get too goofy to avoid it (i.e. going to 3 on 3). This is, of course, if you really can't live with ties...which I personally have no problem with. The only problem the NHL has with ties is not that they don't have a winner, they can live with ties fine, the problem is that teams start to play not to lose so they can at least get the single point and offense basically dries up.

All I know is let's get this season started...

How about a best-of-7 tic-tac-toe competition?

Well, Kenny sure has had a great off season for the Griffins.

Callahan>Cleary. We'll lose him to waivers.

The downside of winning is thinking you have to keep guys instead of moving forward. Since there's a cap, and at that price, if I was Chicago I would have signed Toews, but let Kane become a UFA. Having $21 Million tied up in 2 players is insane! Looking at Chicago's cap situation, they better win this year, because a fire sale will happen next off season. Those contracts have just increased and already over inflated UFA market. Drafting and developing your own players just became even more important!