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Agreed. I sort of think of it in terms of marriage and parenthood. The Wings of the 90s and early 2000s were a bachelor who was basically beholden to no one. Then that bachelor got married and became a father. Now he has certain responsibilities. Now every move he makes has to be born of a series of careful considerations. Would he like to spend every weekend with hookers? Maybe. Could he spend every weekend with hookers? Maybe. But, really, he can't. He shouldn't. Because he'd be a bad husband and father. Everything would fall apart. If it were up to Ken Holland, he'd spend as much of Mike Ilitch's money as he could. Were it up to Ken Holland, he'd trade all his draft picks for all-star acquisitions. Were it up to Ken Holland, there'd be no cap, and we'd have a dynamite team every single season, like back in the 90s and early 2000s. But none of that's doable in the cap era. Every consideration is complex. Every draft pick matters. Realistically, every penny that can be pinched, is pinched. One wrong move can wreck your team - and organization (The All-Important Bottom Line) - for years. At the end of the day, the Wings were a juggernaut for two straight decades. The cap and our empty prospect cupboards started to catch up with us, and Kenny decided to switch to a retooling plan, the idea being that we tread water for a few years in exchange for another ten years or more of contention. And even then, he's never been fully resigned to simply treading water, because he's gone for Suter, Parise, Edler, Niskanen, et al. I've given him s*** for that for the past couple of years, saying he's a hypocrite and whatnot. But I think all he really wants is to see the Wings win the Cup as soon as possible, same as us. Key thing is, though, he has to be responsible. He has to take a long view of things, has to know when to exercise restraint. He has to do what's best for the club in the long run and in the big picture. I have to give him a lot of credit. Were it me, I'd probably be more like Paul Holmgren, wheeling and dealing but never really getting his team anywhere, and, actually, probably hurting them more than he's helping them.

My prediction is that we'll be so bad that Dabura, LeftWinger and myself will not have accounts on LGW by the end of the season.

http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=727853&navid=nhl:topheads Well-deserved. 3 Olympic teams, good NHL career, and all around good guy.

Outdoor games have jumped the shark. Literally.

I would love it if the Wings now where what they were back in the glory years. I agree with you in that I want the Wings to compete for a championship every year, I get upset when they get eliminated from the playoffs, I also agree with you that this is what being a fan is all about, I also don’t want to casually observe the team and then clap at the end of the game. Ho hum.....I wouldn’t be posting on here, buying season tickets, and watching the games if I didn’t feel that way. I think for the most part we are on the same page. I guess where we respectfully agree to disagree, is that I believe to build a winner in the NHL nowadays takes much more time than it used to, and I believe because back in the early 2000's all the Wings had to do after a rough patch was make a few signings (ie. Hull, Robitaille etc.), or make a big trade (ie. Hasek, Lang etc.).....that people believe management should be able to do that now. It's simply a different world, and to have those same expectation are unrealistic. You can’t just go out and sign a bunch of UFA's as that can hurt you long term, and young talent is more important now then it may have ever been with all the long term contract going around now, so you dont want to trade young guys. Long story short, we want the same thing here......GO WINGS!

Crossing my fingers on Weiss.

Perhaps the 29 teams that didn't sign him + the one that desperately needed a player of his type and still waited until over a month into free agency to sign him to a deal (1.3M) that probably acurately reflected his value as a UFA? Who knows exactly what took place with DZ's camp with regards to negotiations with other teams on terms and salary, but the proof of what type of player Del Zotto is, currently, can be found in the contract details and date of signing IMO. But, like I said, IMO.

With Del Zotto I see a guy who had 2 good seasons very early, followed by 2 bad seasons and is now 24 (Total of 4 full seasons) With Smith I see a guy who had 1 bad/ok (it's his first, it's hard to tell) season. and is now 25 DZ has proved more, but is also trending downward very badly. Smith has been sheltered, but it remains to be seen if he's a producer or not. I'd rather take a chance on Smith IMO, but I understand the other side of the coin too.

If I had a gun with two bullets and I was in a room with Hitler, Stalin, and the new chick in the Wendy's commercials, I would shoot Wendy's girl twice.

Atta undrafted michigan boy!

What about Jiri Slegr? Imagine if he had a bad game in 5 of the SCF? If he has two Brad Stuart like moments that cost us the game, then we go back to Carolina in front of that crazy crowd and lose game 6. Then we're in game 7 at home with all the pressure on us. That would suck. Point is, don't forget Jiri Slegr. You know, I wanted to see a Downey/Lilja/McCarty line in 2008, but it never happened.

Subban shoulda gotten 8, he's not better than Doughty/Weber although he benefits from having a Norris to his name The comparisons to the Kane/Toews deal are sort of valid, but at the same time, let's keep in mind that Kane and Toews are two of the most popular, recognizable players in the NHL.Chicago has the biggest bandwagon fanbase in the NHL and if you lose Captain Serious and Kaner, you lose a whole bunch of revenue. Montreal likes Subban but they'll always have a fan base and it wouldn't be the end of the world if they lost him.

that would imply that the organization is moving in the right direction, I honestly thought they were moving backwards on purpose lol

Don't worry Kenny's got a firm grip on the wheel.