Leaderboard

In all seriousness, atta boy Dano. You are and will continue to be a class act.

I already do this

We have had many issues with this in the past. 1) I don't know if it is Holland, Babcock, or the players, but they don't seem to have the willingness to fight. Even when it was a terrible cheap shot. 2) The strange mentality ignoring this aspect of the game. Yeah, skill is great, but if you can't stand up for your team when needed, teams are going to walk all over you. When a team can physically intimidate your guys, can cheap shot and get away with it because no one will do anything, that is a problem. 3) We expect the refs to protect us, but when they don't, we get abused and don't have a backup plan. We've seen this year in and year out. Remember last year with Franzen and Neil? Franzen said this, "I’ve been getting head shots pretty much every year and I don’t think it’s ever been punishment for any of the hits,” and this,“He thinks I’m not tough because I’m not fighting him; what does he have, like 30 fights a year? And he’s been doing that his whole career,” Franzen said. “I’ve never had a fight in my whole life. It’s like me asking him to get hockey sense and good hands or something. I’ve never been fighting, didn’t grow up fighting. For me it’s not a part of the game. I’m not going to fight. I’ve had enough concussions. I’m definitely not going to risk one doing something stupid like that.” Here Franzen is admitting he gets hit, doesn't get protected by the refs or league, and won't fight. Isn't this the epitome of the Red Wings philosophy? Just play with more skill and it will work itself out right? 4) Ignoring the fact that we do need hard hitters to defend guys. I don't want dirty players. I DO want someone who will stand up for our guys. Not to mention you have two or three guys against us on ice and we have only one guy willing to stand up for us, it will be ugly. 5) Playoffs. This crap gets ridiculous. Not only are things ratcheted up even higher, and generally diving is rewarded, but teams throw down over perfectly clean hits. It is stupid, but that is the current NHL. We can't skate away from that fact. We go into a situation where we expect our skill guys to have to do all the heavy fighting we are in trouble. 6) Teammates need to stick up for each other more. You need to believe a teammate has your back. What if Ericsson wasn't on the ice for that Helm hit? Would anyone else on the ice have done anything? 7) Covering our eyes isn't going to make it go away, and the management and coaching need to realize that.

That's a legit point, and admittedly I do consider Mantha and Mrazek sure-thing future stars. I base that assumption off two things, A) they've excelled at every single level they've played at, and B) our organization is excellent at prospect development. I can only compare them on their body of work so far, and in every way they've been exceptional. Oh, I get it, because he's a homosexual. Hilarious.

I heard last time the Pens were there Crosby stood up and yelled "me! Me!"

I smell troll.

Something like this ?

Very fitting name...

By my calculations that's 13-ish chances.

He's also behind Kronwall, Ericsson, Dekeyser, Smith, Quincey, and apparently, Paetch and Evans. If he's our 5th best prospect currently in the AHL, the chances of him ever sniffing the Wings are practically nil, whether he's playing every night or not. You can say he's a very good prospect, but don't gloss over that he's also apparently unable to win a regular spot in an AHL lineup at the moment. Prospects wash out all the time. All over the league. 5th round picks do so much more often than not. I bet Gleason Fournier wasn't too happy that he sucked too much for the AHL, but he wasn't European so no one wrote a story about it. Did anyone here care? We feeling that loss? The pool of future NHL players is not going to say to themselves, "Hey, this one time, there was this one 5th round pick who couldn't win a regular AHL spot, and the Wings didn't go out of their way to make it easier for him. Those dicks, I'll never play there." It's not about anyone being over-ripe, or our development process taking too long, or any unfair treatment. There are spots in GR besides Ouellet's. If Backman can't win one of those other 5, he should be unhappy with himself, not with the organization. While my "why should we care" comment may have been flippant, and I'd certainly expect the organization to show more tact, I would much rather see them say, "Suck it up. Play better or have fun in Europe." than "Oh, sorry it's too hard for you, let me get one of these better players out of your way so you can play every day.".

Datsyuk and zetterberg are two of the most respected players in the league.Z still gets ran a lot, datsyuk barely ever does because everyone respects him. And if you go straight for his body, hell duck you, if you go for the puck hell embarass you. And datsyuk literally goes out of his ways to play a clean game. If he's backchecking and ends up hooking someone instead of lifting their stick hell apologize... I get the point you're trying to make, but comparing them is apples to oranges.

Toto. Subject of milk cartons. EDIT: Oh, we posted at the same time, Scott. I guess people will have to guess both of ours.

Lets all celebrate with by having a drink on the floor so he can drink with us

Dan/Danny/Daniel Cleary is 36 today! May your 36 year old knees only feel like they're 45 today, Daninator.

To mark the occasion, I hope he'll drink until he falls down. ...by which, of course, i mean no drinks.

I stand corrected on the "uncoachable" comments. Dreger made them, and while they may or may not be true, I've relied on Dreger's analysis in the past and would be a hypocrite if I ran you down for doing it now. As far as Nyquist vs. Hall. Hall is, and will continue to be the better player. The fact that they momentarily have similar point totals doesn't really mean too much. I like Nyquist fine, and I see no reason to run him down, but he's simply not the better player.

Helm = Untouchable Unless someone can catch up to him

Here's one of the articles about hall being uncoachable. http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-puck-daddy/taylor-hall-is-un-coachable--will-be-on-trade-block--report-000824459.html You say he's not a good player, then describe three ways he's a good player.Are you trolling?

I agree with a couple of your points. Largely that Mantha is untouchable, and the previously mentioned trade packages are overkill. But I disagree with a couple of things. 1) When has Hall every been considered "uncoachable" and who made the claim? I've never heard that. As far as I knew, he was the only one of their young kids who didn't have an attitude problem. I've heard that about Yakupov, RNH, and Eberle (to a lesser extent), but not Hall. 2) Just because other people were offering too much, doesn't mean that you aren't offering too little. Taylor Hall is a very good player. You'd certainly have to give up a bigger piece than Helm as the cornerstone of any deal. Probably Nyquist + Smith + middling prospect would get it done. Helm as a center piece in that trade would get you laughed off the phone.

Can't wait for the inevitable, self righteous, and long winded interview Mike Commodore gives on this latest development lol.

In 2009-2010 Alexander Semin had 84 points. Prior to that, his previous efforts were all as good (or better) than Hall's. A number of other players have touched 80-90 pts once or twice and then completely fallen off. Actually, that happens more often than a guy consistently performing at an elite level for a whole career. Plus, having two 50 pt. guys (theoretically) is better than having one 100 pt. guy. It's a lot harder to shutdown two guys. I wouldn't trade Tatar+Mantha+Smith+1st for almost anybody in the league. The only exceptions are guys who will absolutely NEVER get traded.

Are you suggesting that we aren't a true contender because one time Henrik Zetterberg got cross checked? Lol.

Rush? Common shape of a Valentine

Simple. To irritate people who REALLY like Smith. It's my way of having fun at your expense lol.

I only drink tea that comes from Long Island myself