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I've had a really hard time getting intrigued by any of this.. I've came to the conclusion that. I honestly don't care what happens. The beauty of having been a fan of this franchise all my life has taught me that no matter what they do, they'll be competitive and most likely, at least make the playoffs. Sure, some of you can give me one hundred reasons why this may be coming to an end, and some of them, I see some semblance of a cause for concern... But they'll be fine either way. I just really. Truly. Could not care less about this. I have faith in the franchise, not a singular person in it. The sum is greater than the parts. Blahblahblah.

Last year there was a massive contingent of Slovakian voters who helped propel Tatar to the TSN Play of the year title. In one match-up vs TJ Oshie, Tatar edged him out with a massive comeback where both guys had millions of votes. I believe that is the reason our votes were timing out after a certain # cast. A lot of Blues fans were complaining we were cheating...(we were)

Small? I'd rather draft someone big

I am not sure why some people are so mad at Babcock, the guy is doing nothing wrong. All he is doing is giving teams an opportunity to speak with him. I can pretty much guarantee that 9/10 people that post on LGW would be willing to hear an offer from a rival company (regardless of what job you do) if your current employer had absolutely no issue with it, and there was a ton of interest in you from other companies. He is not acting cocky, he does not sound like he is lying to the the fans. He says he is exploring his options, and that's what he is doing.

Boy I hope the Wings draft a big bodied boy

Way to go!! Gus with the win at 55.98% (71,727 votes) to 44.02% (56,400 votes). Now we have Zetterberg in the Pool C Finals and Gus in Pool D Finals!

It's official - Babcock to Toronto... Manny Legace: “I think Babcock ends up in Toronto” Wait, whudayamean Manny Legace's not a reliable source? http://mapleleafshotstove.com/2015/05/11/manny-legace-i-think-babcock-ends-up-in-toronto/

Nope, I have a knack for remembering useless trivia at times. What FlashyG said (great explanation as well). The Oshie beating was quite amusing, as was the crush in the finals last year.

Maybe not yet, but I get to watch a lot of him out here in Buffalo. If he had players around him he'd be good. dude does everything. Skates, hands, hits, smarts. Love him and his crazy name. All the other Sabres, even their high picks, are jokes compared to him. EDIT: Girgensons Boner achieved

Wow, there are so many things wrong with this It's hard to even start. Bare in mind according to these stats Tyler Johnson is the best player in the league and Jiri Hudler is the 10th best player in the league... and Mike Hoffman is 11th

What I find much more impressive is that he has 34 goals and 47 points in his last 28 AHL games. I hope he continues that same success through the rest of the playoffs and the Griffins win another Calder Cup. Hopefully he works his ass off in the summer and becomes a legit threat for the Wings next season.

That's the problem they aren't good defensively so why not put more focus on forechecking instead of backchecking they will be less relied upon defensively if we pressure the offensive zone more We had 4 20+ goal scorers on a defensive minded team, don't know what you're talking about.

I rarely have to resort to this, but I'm rooting for Analheim because Getzlaf's cute. That, my friends, is true desperation.

Babcock in Toronto would be pretty funny. Babs is used to the Detroit media that aren't exactly known for stirring the pot. In Toronto every single decision he makes will be put under the microscope and he'll be badgered about each and every one of them. Not to mention the micro managing he'll have to deal with from Shanahan and the board of directors.

When 5 of your 6 D-men are Quincey, Ericsson, Smith, Kindl, and Zidlicky, I think you need to focus on defense.

Let him go to Toronto and suck..Wings will be fine without him.

Paying him 5 million or more, is so dumb. That's way too much for a coach. Babs doesn't have a magic wand that delivers Stanley Cups. If you've got a s*** organization, one that's not built for his style of play, or a GM that can't deliver, or a destination that nobody want to go to, Mike Babcock isn't going to change that. Mike Babcock (@ 5, 10, or 20 million a year) couldn't bring a Cup to Toronto. It's starting to get to the point where the hype is so great that every outcome will be a let down. After tomorrow there will be four coaches vying for the 2015 Stanley Cup. None of them are named Babcock. This will be the sixth year in a row that this has been the case. I know everybody will list 1,000,000,000 zillion reasons why it's not his fault. But the truth is, Babs isn't a guarantee of ANYTHING. They didn't hand him a Stanley Cup just for showing up here in Detroit, and they won't hand him one elsewhere. And about 90% of the teams he could go to will be more incompetent, miserly, and corrupt than the one everybody thinks he coaches for now. So why would there be a better result elsewhere? Because Connor McDavid, or Jack Eichel, or Phil Kessel or blah, blah, blah. He's a good coach, but is he so otherworldly good that he's worth that kind of money? Some argue that he's better than Quenneville. Ok fine. Is he twice as good as Quenneville? Because he's about to get paid like it. And when he doesn't deliver, then what?

I don't necessarily disagree with the general theme you're suggesting, but you're overstating it a bit. After trading for Zidlicky, we were slightly above average (amongst playoff teams) in terms of defense scoring. Our best offensive defensemen (Kronwall, Zidlicky, and Dekeyser) had 44, 34, and 31 pts. respectively. For comparisons' sake, Duncan Keith, Seabrook, and Hjalmarsson (Chicago's top guys) had 45, 31, and 19 points. I'd even argue that Ericsson, Quincey, and Kindl contributed MORE than you'd realistically expect them to considering two of them are stay at home guys, and one of them played 34 games. Smith was underwhelming offensively, but that's relative to his talent and pedigree, and not relative to other third pair puck movers around the league. And all these guys did that while playing REALLY good defense. Our shot suppression was impressive, and laudable. Again, I'm not trying to disagree too much. I'd love to have a player or two on the back end who have a more dynamic ability to make plays in the offensive zone. But our defense was actually MUCH better than advertised. How bad it was is drastically overstated around here (I imagine because in the post-Lidstrom era that's all part of the narrative). Especially in the playoffs. Our defense wasn't even bad the one game Kronwall and Zidlicky were out. So I don't want to blame of lack of offense on that too much. Side note: I laughed when I saw the "Is Kronwall a #1 defenseman" thread the other day. Kronners plays huge minutes, excellent defense, and scores 40+ points a season, but he's not a number 1. Keith, Pietrangelo, Suter, Byfuglien, Doughty, OEL, all do the the same thing and they're obviously better for some reason.

He's also happened to take the Wings to the playoffs with his superstars injured and having most man games lost last season. He's also happened to take the Wings with a terrible defensive unit to game 7 against Blackhawks of 2013, probably one of the most talented teams that year. He also outcoached the hell out of Bruce Boudraeu in game 7 in 2013 round 1. Babcock isn't overrated. He's not underrated. He's rated perfectly fine. He's done it all. He's won championships with championship teams and he's gone far with subpar roster teams. (Anaheim 2003). The past few years he's been trying to make a sub par roster into champions and hasn't been able to do so. Big whoop. I'd like to see other coaches try. I'll bet my life savings that many of you will regret it come march 2016 if we don't even make playoffs. Remember the Scotty Bowman to Dave Lewis transition? Almost the same roster with a different coach. First round elimination under Lewis. Oh btw, Scotty also won with stacked rosters.

Wrote a post longer than my most prized essay and it just disappeared and now I'm lazy so here's the short. I think we need to look at this from a family decision as I can all but guarantee the two most important thoughts are Mikes and his wife's. Nobody else is going to matter more. Period. Possibilities: A) mike and wife both want to stay B) both want to leave C) they both have opposite opinions. Now, we know that mike and his wife's first conversation on the topic of where he will be next year did not go well. This eliminates option 1 and 2 and leave only number 3. Next, I know I'm digging here but hear me out. I recently read, I can't find the quote but I believe I read it on this forum so help me out if anyone knows. Mike Babcock said something along the lines of: the easy decision for my wife and family is to stay here. They have friends,family and ties here. My son is going off to school and he wants to come back to Detroit for thanksgiving. Blah blah blah Now taking into consideration that they argued and what mike has said about what the easy family decision would be, one can assume(risky I know) that it would be his family and wife who want to stay and that mike does in fact want to leave. You know what they say about assuming, but that's my thought process and to me, it doesn't seem unreasonable.

Aren't we all god's children, I mean Mcgrattan's.

JVR is one player I've wanted to have for a while now. I just don't see Holland giving up the necessary players to get him though. He's only 26 too and could easily be a part of their rebuild unless he requests a trade out of that gong show. But I haven't heard anything even hinting at him being unhappy there unfortunately.

Well played, but isn't Krispy Kreme based out of the Carolinas? Their glazed donuts blow away anything Tim Horton's bakes.

Is this why Kenny Holland almost always offers some type of role within the organization after they retire?