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a list of things I take more seriously than mindfly: 1. A promise from a politician 2. The artistic musical styling of one Justin Bieber 3. The word of an AD in college football that there will not be a coaching change and they are committed to the current coach, after a couple sub-par seasons 4. Brett Favre's retirement announcements 5. The complaints of a woman wearing a low cut, 2 sizes too small shirt, that guys always stare at her boobs 6. The weather report I could go on...

Gee....ya think? Babcock is delusional about goaltending. It's his blind spot. He seems to think that he can manufacture a Starting Goaltender, by sheer number of Starts alone. He did it with Legace. He tried to do it with Conklin. And now he's doing it with Howard. Babcock needs to learn that what makes a goaltender a #1 Goaltender is NOT the number of Games he starts during the Season. It's what's between his ears. And you can't FORCE that, no matter how many Games you throw 'em out there. Babcock seems pig-headedly stubborn, incapable of learning from past mistakes, and unwilling to admit when he's wrong. Maybe THAT is what kept him from ever being able to make it to the NHL as a Player.

It's pretty simple, VM: If Babcock turns to Osgood now, odds are Ozzie is so fired up and hungry for the #1 spot, that he TAKES it. And never looks back. What does that mean for Mike Babcock? It means he was WRONG about the goaltending. It means that he was WRONG to stick with Howard as the Wings were driven to 7 Games against an inferior opponent, and bounced in 5 Games against a choke Team which was swept in the next Round. It means that he made the WRONG decision to declare Howard the Starter to open this Season, without a hint of competition for the spot. For those who state that "Howard is the Starter. You have to stick with your Starter." Says WHO? What justifies keeping Howard as the Starter, when his "back-up" is outplaying him. Wasn't Osgood the Starter just LAST SEASON....until HIS "back-up" started outplaying HIM. Then a NEW Starter was named, based on merit. When Legace was the Starter in 2005-2006, and Osgood was the back-up, it was: "Manny's the Starter. He's our guy, and we're gonna ride him." When Dom was the Starter from 2006-2008, and Osgood was the back-up, it was: "Dom's the Starter. He's our guy, and we're gonna ride him." When Ozzie was the Starter in 2007-2008, and Conklin was the back-up, it was: "Whoever plays better, plays." When Ozzie was the Starter in 2008-2009, and Howard was the back-up, it was: "We're going with the hot hand." Now that Howard is the Starter, and Osgood is once again the back-up, it's back to: "Howard's the Starter. He's our guy, and we're gonna ride him." Anyone who fails to see the ridiculous double standard here is out of their minds. It's quite simple. Babcock will NOT allow Osgood a shot, not even a shot, to re-take the Starting role. He'll keep throwing Howard out there, for loss after loss, regardless of HOW he's playing, until the TEAM pulls it together, and Howard starts Winning again. THEN he can say: "See. It was just a slump. All is well now." Right up until the Wings are bounced out of the Post Season early, again. He did the same thing in January/February last Season when Howard went 8-5-6, and was giving up 3+ goals per Game consistently. He just kept throwing him out there, Game after Game, after Game.

Are you serious? Please, please, please remind yourself of the stretch run last year. Where Jimmy Howard basically carried us on his back. We wouldn't have made the playoffs without him last year, chew on that. His start this year wasn't bad either...sheez. Put Jimmy on waivers and watch the ensuing GM on GM violence. Pretty sure Leighton goes unclaimed, but either way, pretty much no one will care anyway.

Howard has been badly outplayed by Osgood for a month and a half. This what you don't understand. Howard automatically gets the next start after a bad game to 'sort it out' if you will. The problem is that he has been having a ton of bad games. Osgood, on the other hand, has been playing great and after each great game he gets exiled to the end of the bench for another week or two. Howard has done nothing to earn his starts this season; Osgood has done plenty. Osgood should be starting half or more of the games from here on out until Howard proves otherwise.

A friend of mine posted some Leafs jokes on my facebook, I'll share them here.. What's a common theme with the Toronto Raptors, Blue Jays, Argonauts, and Maple Leafs, aside from all being from Toronto?... None of them know how to play hockey. What do you call 22 millionaires watching the playoffs?... The Maple Leafs. Why doesn't Hamilton have and NHL team?... Then Toronto would want one too. It's a sad fact that most people who witnessed the Leafs win their last cup were in diapers... It's a fun fact that the next time they win, those same people will be in diapers again. Man goes into a bar with his dog to watch the Leafs game. Bartender says it's ok, so long as the dog doesn't cause any trouble... When the Leafs score their first goal, the dog leaps off the bar stool, does a backflip and dances around on its hind legs. The bartender says to the man, "Hey that's pretty sweet! What happens when they win a game?"... The man replies, "I dunno. I've had him for 3 years and we're yet to see it happen!" What do the Leafs and the Titanic have in common?... The both look good until they hit the ice.

GO USA, GO MITCH CALLAHAN

Even Luongo isn't "elite" anymore. The guy used to be, but he's not very "clutch." He's certainly great but like Ken and Mick said the other night, there just aren't any truly dominant goalies in the league. Do Miller, Lundqvist and Luongo really stack up when compared to Hasek, Roy and Brodeur (in his hey-day)? No.

Better then Howard...

good thing we still have one Czech, or else, no funny. Still the best Red Wings commercial, ever:

How is Osgood any better than Roloson? Osgood is a compiler, lucky to play for the Wings - behind one of the best defenses in the league for most of his career. If he hadn't joined Wings, there would be no discussion about HHOF or retiring numbers. It would be a disgrace to retire his number. As for his 3 Cups? The first one - Osgood was no.2 goalie; the second Cup - Wings won despite Osgood's piss poor performance; 3rd Cup - Osgood was great. One great playoff run does not make him HHOFer.

He continually finished outside the top 10 in S% and GAA. Get over it.

I was thinking today, and asked a few people I know... I think another indication of a future of a franchise is how many prospects they have in the Jr. Championships (we have 5 ). Does anyone know how many Leafs prospects are in the World Jr.'s? I haven't heard any reports on the FAN590 in Toronto about how a Leaf(s) prospect is doing. My guess it's zero. Love it!!

I am not throwing Howard under the bus, I am simply recognizing the fact that there is like 8 points that separates the Wings and 8th place, and if Howard keeps playing like he has been for the past month, the Wings will quickly find themselves at 8th place; especially without Pavs! Quite frankly, I am getting tired of the excuses for Howard every game (The D hung him out to dry, they were unstoppable shots). Guess what, it is the job of the goalie to make key saves at a key time to keep his team in the game and Howard HAS NOT been doing that... that cannot even be argued right now. Ozzy has been fantastic for the Wings, and the Wings play better in front of him; There is NO REASON that Howard should still be given more starts than Ozzy right now. I want it split 50/50 with the better goalie starting more games near the end and into the playoffs... IMO Ozzy looks to be in the form he was a couple years when they won the Cup and the best chance for a Cup this year will have Ozzy in net. Babcock needs to be smacked in the head so he realizes this.

I successfully boycotted the Winter Classic.

Franzen's cap hit is less than a million more than Flip's and by the end of the year he'll likely be leading our team in goals scored by a healthy margin. Not only that, he'll likely have almost as many goals as Flip has points if both stay healthy. Plus, so long as he's healthy in the playoffs, he's a big game player. And really, you can't compare his streaks or Zetterbergs or Dats or whoever you're thinking as they're simply rarely as notable even proportionally. Last year was an off year for nearly everyone on this team so you really can't use that as a measure. Between losing so many guys all at once in the off-season and then losing so many to injuries, there just was little chance for this team to be successful and get something going. Franzen never came back 100% either. Zetterberg may underachieve offensively at times, but he still brings so much to the team and has a tendency of finishing on a strong note. But with these guys, at worst there's still a fairly steady stream of offense throughout the season. Oh, and I hope you're just referring to offense and not Lids or Raffi... With Flip though, he's never putting up big numbers by seasons end to compensate for any hint of streaky play that may exist. Look at last year towards the end of the season. In 3 games in a row, he puts up 4 goals and 8 points. The 5 games prior to that he musters up 1 assist while in the 9 games after that he's only able to add 1 assist. Prior to that rather bizarre ending to the season, he was playing fairly consistently compared to his previous seasons. But it's always something with him. He has a solid year when healthy and then has a 3 game burst among 14 games of pure slump despite the team around him playing better than they had at any point in the season. And the streaky comments wouldn't mean as much if the basis for the idea that he can put up higher offensive numbers weren't based on streaky periods of play in which he's hot for a few games before and after being cold, cold and cold...he's yet to have a full season in which he's demonstrated that he can consistently produce. Every other guy making more money than him has had the end of season point totals to take away from the "streaky" comments. He's still never had more than 40 points and he's yet to put in a full season of at least semi-consistent offensive play. Until he delivers a season that allows you to change the nature of what is currently an absolute fact, you are going to have a hard time logically defending the idea of him being a consistent offensive player.

The origins of hockey are that Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews invented it in 2008 as a winter sport, but only to keep them in shape for their summertime activity of "keeping their core together." Who knew?

I'm still trying to figure out why it being American vs. Canadian has any impact on whether it is a better sport or not......confused.

If you are proud of watching a sport in which a majority of the players have been convicted of a felony, then keep watching the NBA.

Because some journalists are clueless morons? Hell, if anything, to make it catch on with the "average American", you'd have to have MORE fights. At the very minimum one a game, I'd guess.

#5 will be there.. Shanahan, Fedorov were great players but you've gotta be someone really really special to hang in the rafters in JLA...this isn't the pepsi center in denver, colorado.

Blasphemy.

I thought this was going to be a thread about Stumpy Steve Thomas