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He's so excited for the alumni game vs Detroit, Peter Forsberg has been seen in pools all over Sweden practicing his diving... *drops mic, walks off stage*

I don't agree that playing too long "tarnishes your career". Pudge Rodriguez played too long. So did Jordan. Joe Montana probably should have retired a 49er, and Joe Lewis didn't do himself any favors late in his career. What do all these things have in common? Nobody cares. Plus, I think we can all agree that it wouldn't have killed Dale Earnhardt to quit while he was ahead...

Yeah the worse halves.

Am I the only one who thinks that David Clarkson might not be as bad as he's seemed in Toronto? I mean, I don't think he's great, or worth his money. But I don't think he's this bad either. I think he's a good system player, and in the right system he's flourish again. Which underlies a bigger point. What kind of team does Toronto want to be? Do they want to be a big, bruising, half ice team like San Jose, Anaheim, or Boston? If so, keep Dion, JVR, Franson, Reilly, Clarkson, Panik, Winnik and trade or buy out Kessel, Kadri, Gardiner, Lupul, Santorelli. If you want to be a skill team, do the opposite. It's like the Maple Leafs are two halves of two VERY different teams. I agree with this, but I also think, "who cares"? I mean, I don't really give a s*** if other teams and other fans thought Tatar or Nyquist were 2nd tier prospects. The fact that other people don't rate our prospects very high doesn't mean those prospects aren't really good, or better than other people think. You'd think years and years and years of churning out NHL players would get people hip to the fact that our prospects are almost always better than theirs, but if they aren't, oh well. Sure it makes trading a little harder, but we rarely trade anyway, so no harm done.

Don't make me sick my gifrlfriend's dragons on you.

We've already seen it, though. McCarty and Lemieux giving autographs together... Osgood interviewing Roy. No one can pretend to think they're still bitter rivals. Anything that would potentially bring Fedorov back is okay by me.

No, this is what you said: Jensen: 24. Has already played 2 seasons in GR. Won best D-man awards in college. Is pretty high on the depth chart. Frk: 21. Plays in the ECHL. Pretty much a complete bust as a prospect so far. Turgeon: 18. Just drafted. Plays in juniors. Ehn: 18. Just drafted. Plays in Sweden. It's like you put the names of all our prospects on a wall and threw 4 darts to select them. Besides Turgeon and Ehn that group has absolutely nothing in common. If you're going to comment on prospects, you should probably know a little bit about them.

I am fine with the was the rule is, I would like to see more goalies get called for embellishment.

We were at the game last night! There was SO much red in the arena! And it's awesome when the winning-energy continues after the game and all the Wings fans are high-fiving and chanting "Let's Go Red Wings!" as everyone files out. A lot of the Avs fans left a few minutes early, so it seemed like it was just a Wings crowd filing out at the end. Awesome atmosphere! Awesome win! Love my Wings!

Pulkkinen is the best player not in the NHL right now (aside from Kovalchuk). But yeah he's 2nd tier at best...

Mauling the American league. I think the scientific term for what Pulkkinen is doing is "mauling". Nyquist never produced like that in the AHL. Neither did Tatar. 50 points in 39 games. Yikes.

HAMPUSSSSSSSSS MELENNNNNNNNNN

The dads (and several thousand Wings fans) celebrate Abdelkader's goal.

And to think he was my hero once for knocking out Matt Cooke.

AA is a beast dude. He's already getting way more hype than Sheahan ever did.

I don't see how Franson isn't worth $5M/year. That's not much more than what Quincey got...

The Leafs are in hockey hell. They have to rebuild. To that end, they need to move out some big contracts and stockpile futures. So, Franson @ $5.5M x 7 years doesn't necessarily make sense for them. They're already up against the cap ceiling, even without a Franson extension. Even if Franson @ $5.5M x 7 years does make sense for them, Shanahan shouldn't be in this position in the first place. Franson should be on an affordable, manageable multi-year deal that takes him into the second or third year of his UFA years. His cap hit this season and next season and maybe even the season after that should be something like $3M, which would be a great value and would give them flexibility in terms of $ and term as well as trade options, as opposed to a huge $5.5M x 7 years deal that takes him from age 27 to age 34 and puts them in an even deeper hole in terms of their ability to wipe the slate clean and start over with only one or two big contracts on the books (one of them being Clarkson, who pretty much can't be moved). My point being, I could see Shanahan saying, "I'm not paying for a Nonis mistake unless I absolutely have to. We need to get out from under the mistakes of previous regimes, not double down on them in the first year of our rebuild." As for Kronwall - our D corps doesn't generate enough offense. Kronwall is the only defenseman we have who can give us eight goals and 45 points. A truly elite team should have at least two guys like that. When we won the Cup, we had Lidstrom, Rafalski, and Kronwall. Now? We have a 34-year-old Kronwall and three "defensive defensemen" in Ericsson, DeKeyser, Quincey. Our blue line doesn't move the puck well enough, struggles to hit the net with shots from the point, and, again, just doesn't give us the production we need.

Agreed. Plus, I think it's understood that if we signed a guy like Franson long term, we'd probably be letting Quincey walk after next season. Just a guess, but seems like a reasonable one.

Whoever said we don't have space for a big contract is wrong. We've got $8 million in space right now. And we are relying on cheap drafted players for the future. We've got plenty of cap space moving forward.

James Wisniewski isn't worth his contract? He's a top four offensive defenseman and powerplay quarterback. Since he's been with Columbus he's scored 115 points in 199 games. He also averages over 20 minutes a night. He's been top ten in defense scoring twice in the four years he's been there, and has contributed 14 powerplay goals and 47 powerplay points since then. What would he need to do to be worth his contract if he's not doing it already? Learn to fly? Do the team's taxes as well?

Right, because trading Phaneuf and his massive (and undeserved) contract will be super duper easy to move. I'm not sure what's so hard to believe here. Toronto mismanaged their team and now can't afford to keep a good player? Good teams do it all the time, why is it so hard to believe a bad team (Toronto) couldn't do it too? I'll give you examples: 1. Boston couldn't afford to keep Iginla or Boychuk, but they aren't bad players. 2. Chicago couldn't afford to keep Campbell, Versteeg, Ladd, or Byfuglien, but they aren't bad players. 3. Detroit only offered Marian Hossa 4 million dollars to stay, but he's not a bad player. Sometimes, cap constraints mean you'll lose guys (or lowball guys) that you'd prefer to keep. It happens...a lot. Get over it. He's a good offensive defenseman. You don't have to like him. You don't have to want him on the team. But your continued insistence that he must not be good because the Toronto Maple Leafs organization can't retain him (at market value), is absurd. Completely and totally absurd. Is it really so hard to believe that that Maple Leafs are wrong? Or stupid? Or poorly run? They've been wrong, stupid, and poorly run for the last 65 year!

I'm a fan of guys like this, Chris Neil, Cal Clutterbuck (not so much a fighter but man does he hit), guys who have a strong physical presence but actually have a bit of offensive skill and can put up a few points per season unlike guys like Konopka. Clutterbuck was the short handed point leader on the Wild 2 straight seasons I believe, was great on the PK, and still showed the ability to put up some points. I think he makes a good point, that if you eliminate fighting from the game, it takes the fear out of players a bit more to lay out hard hits and cheap shots to other players when the only risk is a fine and/or suspension opposed to getting your face bashed in and answering for the physical output they inflicted. I also respect the drive, it's like any job, if you aren't succeeding in a certain role, take on a different one and see if you can improve your value and make your presence known by gaining more tools. Guys like Prust dig in hard, give it their all every night because if they don't, they risk potentially losing their spot to someone else that can contribute more.

Pulkkinen hat-trick

Pulks finishes his 21st goal of the season.

Here it its,the tying goal.