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Quick >>>>>> Any Goalie

Agreed. I have said that I'm not a fan of the prospect pool, I think it's pretty shallow and pretty average IMO.. But I think there are ways we could swing a deal for a top end scorer with a package of prospects/picks/current players in a way that could work out well for both teams. Will Ken Holland do that when/if we miss out on Parise and Suter? I don't know. I suppose we'll find out after July 1

Clearly you haven't read this and other threads all the way through. There have been several people claiming that Suter and Parise are locks to come here. And even more people who have put up future rosters including the two of them. The Wings CAN offer AS MUCH as anyone but not more.. There are plenty of teams with 18-20 mil in cap space that will make offers. And my point is that Ken Holland never overpays for players so why would he start now? I know they are going to go hard after Parise and Suter but what happens when other teams offer Parise 8-8.5 Mil? You think Holland will go that high? No chance. Same deal with Suter. The only reason you dislike my opinion is because I don't agree with you and others who think that both of the most sought after FA's in this years class are both going to land here.

SWEEP! Quick >>>>>> Elliott

I have to admit that I didn't not see this being a sweep. I mean I knew if LA could beat Van and they were the best team in the Regular season than they could easily beat the #2 seed as long as they played as hard as they did against the Canucks. It was a great effort for the Kings. Hopefully if all goes well it will be LA and Phx in the Conference Finals. As far as that goes I hope the Coyotes can come out on top especially since I was hoping it was Stl Vs NYR in the Cup Finals with New York Winning the Cup. Hopefully it will be PHX and NYR IMO and I'd still be rooting for the Rangers but it wouldn't break my heart if th Yotes did win and Shane Doan got his Cup. Nice Work Kings!!

Yea good thing you are not the gm. We'd break our 22 straight of making the playoffs with a massive overhaul. Adding a couple free agents would Put us in contention again. I laugh at some of the people on here posting all year how we needed a fourth line grinder befOre the deadline. It's been obvious for what the wings lacked. They have so many playmakers and yet no true snipers. They lack speed and size. There older players are the guys who have been injured thru the yr and the playoffs yet they compete. They need to realistcly let guys like bertuzzi,holmstrom,hudler walk. Yes bring in guys like d jones,Sheehan, jurco. All have size and skill. Then you add in a parise and you have a dangerous scoring team. I like yur thoughts on the d. Just not sure they would play kindl over b smith. Wings outta offer parise,suter deals and retool on the fly.

^This lol

Excellent win, LA took them to school and the Boooos are gone. This is most satisfying!

Wondering why he still hasn't seen his team play a Finals game in his life.

Thank you Kings for one of the most entertaining sweeps I've seen. I'd say LA has far superior goaltending.

BYE BYE BLUES!

That's game! Congrats Kings!

You must play alot of NHL on xbox? I understand where you are coming from, but bottom line is.. Lidstrom at 3 mil = insult Trading Datsyuk and/or Zetterberg = insult. As a respectable, classy organization, why would we treat our top 3 guys in such manner? Datsyuk and Zetterberg need players to play around them, we need not to replace them. I'm all for shopping Franzen, Filpulla, and at the most extreme, maybe even Kronwall or Nyquist...But I don't understand how you can honestly think Lidstrom is going to sign for 3 mil max, and Datsyuk and Zetterberg could be shopped. I saw the moon last night, maybe this has something to do with you're thinking methods.

People didn't boo Fedorov because of his nationality. Fedorov lost my respect and I would have booed him too but not because he was Russian, that's asinine. The jealousy/hate toward the KHL comes from a competitive mindset because the RSL/KHL don't broadcast to North America, the NHL does, the RSL/KHL accuses the NHL of taking talent as well, it's a bitter competition between leagues and the NHL represents North America, nothing else to expect other than a broad consensus bias for the NHL. If the KHL made it's product highly available to North American markets things would obviously be different. Radulov has been criticized already in this series against Phoenix for floating around, much like Fedorov. He has a great ability and can do quite a bit of damage to the opponents but rather than put out an effort for 10-25 minutes a game he wants to float for most of it helping his team lose. That merits criticism, has nothing to do with the KHL nor Russia, and someone suggesting the RSL/KHL ruining players would be stupid because Pavel wasn't ruined when he played there during the lockout, nor a few other players. Fedorov was bashed due to inconsistency but why shouldn't someone be bashed for that? What does that have to do with Russian hatred/dislike as per your claim? I guess you didn't see how much vitriol was placed upon Osgood after the team lost to the Penguins in the 2009 SCF, and the following season? Should I then suggest that LGW hates Canadians? As for the Datsyuk bashing of his contract, here's the topic of his signing: http://liveweb.archive.org/http://www.letsgowings.com/forums/topic/41642-datsyuk-signs-7-year-469m-contract-extension/ I read the first 25 pages, and nowhere did I see any Russian bashing.. in fact I was correct that it had entirely to do with his playoff performance as to why people were sceptical, plus, fans were naturally sceptical of long term contracts since the Wings were not really into that kind of thing previously. This is the last (serious) post I give toward the Russian bashing thing, it has no merit, until proof is seen to this assertion that this was heavily prominent on this forum. Right now the proof says otherwise, and it's clear you have a seriously misguided view of posters' here and their view on Russians. If there's anything humorous it's that people in that first 25 pages of the Datsyuk signing thread kept saying that Z should earn 10m/season and that Z > Pavel.. yikes.

Perhaps a little. But not as much as you think. And Parise and Suter may not command that much, but they sure as hell will be offered that much by at least a couple teams IMO. That's what happens when you mix a lot of desperate teams with a thin FA class.

Konopka's face-off percentage is top 6 in the entire league during the regular season and top 2 in the playoffs. He'd instantly be our best face-off option.

Crymson is laughing uproariously, guys.

I'd say that your defence is pretty weak, also.

Last I knew Gary Bettman didn't become commissioner of the NHL through a coup d'etat. The league brought him in with the expressed desire to increase the profile of the league and expand the sport. If revenue increases from 400 million to 3 billion per year are any indication, he's done exactly what he was hired to do. Personally, I don't like his expansion policies, and some of the rule changes are garbage, but it's not like the league didn't know what they were getting. There's plenty to criticize Bettman about, but I think alot of the criticism that Bettman receives should be focused on the Board of Governors rather than the commissioner considering they obviously wanted the changes he's made.

I'm not getting good goaltending

Yeah and it was only 13 percent of all players. That's all well and good, and of course Detroit is a good destination.. But it isn't the one and only place. And it looks like a lot of those votes are based on history alone which is why Toronto and Montreal made the list I assume because they are terrible right now. History and tradition are great things to have but when you're not winning and you're franchise clearly is not built for the future.. You're going to have a tough time attracting top guys who can go anywhere they want. Especially if they get offered more money there. You can have your head in the clouds about all these prospects and think that UFA's are destined to come here all you want but it's going to be a cold slap in the face this summer when none of it materializes.

"He" didn't do any of that, the board of governors did. He's just a figure head, any one else in the world can become commissioner and nothing would change unless the board of governors agree to it.

I agree about the weasel part, but what exactly is so surreptitious about his actions? His job isn't to make the fans like him, and he much like the president he can't just change things on a whim without people knowing about it. Most of your complaints should be directed to the board of governors, not Bettman.

This article you link to is over 2 years old. And it wasn't all that great to begin with.

What do you mean trollin??? First time anyone has accused me of trollin Bettman changed the game so his weaker teams would have a better chance of success 96 Panthers being a perfect example. Major offensive records will never be broken. 2459 fewer goals and over 6000 fewer points scored by players were scored in 97-98 than just 5 years previously in 92-93, Bettman's first full year as commissioner and more than 2000 fewer goals last year than in his first full year. Personally I don't care too much where the game is being played or about the finances of the NHL except where it concerns the on ice product. All the obstruction that was allowed favored the trap and so did the bigger goalie equipment, you had to use some form of the trap to win. This was all manipulated by Bettman to manufacture parity by circumventing talent. His excuse initially for allowing all the obstruction is that too many penalties would slow the game down but as it has been argued then and has been proven now that the player and coaches will adapt to how the game is called. If all penalties are called all the time (when humanly possible, of course a ref may miss some if his view was obstructed and of course we all mistakes) the players, coaches and fans would know what to expect. His excuse for the goalie equipment is that players are bigger and stronger with harder shots and that they need the bigger equipment to protect themselves. At the all-star games they record speeds of slap shots, rarely do they post times higher than Al MaCinnes or Al Iafrate used to post back in the eighties. Back in the seventies Bobby Schmautz shot the puck right through the net a few times. When a goalie played the puck before Bettman was commissioner the players could check him where they can't touch the goalies anymore. So why do they need the extra equipment? I work out with a 20 lb. vest and i could put a regular sized jersey over it and I can't even notice in the mirror and I am sure it would offer more protection than all that big huge padding that they are wearing. It is not protection but puck stopping equipment. On Hockey Night in Canada, Ron MacLean once put Grant Fuhr's entire catching glove into a catching glove goalies use today to demonstrate the great difference in size. The bigger goalie equipment benefited the trap style of play and Bettman allowed both so he indeed can get blamed for it. His underlying motive for allowing obstruction and the bigger goalie equipment was to manufacture parity. As I have shown the goalie equipment need not be any bigger to protect in fact they are more protected by the rules and with the development of technology I am sure they can produce goalie equipment just as big as it was in the eighties that is be much more protective as well. And now that they have instituted the "new rules" it is proven what a joke "calling all the obstruction would slow the game with too many penalties" excuse is. I think it is so funny when the NHL refers to the adjustment they finally made after the last lockout as "new rules". Excuse me but interference, hooking, tripping, holding, have always been rules the only difference is how often they are to be called. If they don't reduce the goalie equipment to the size it was before Bettman was commissioner major offensive records will never be broken. It always creates a lot of excitement and media attention when someone is going for a record. I think hockey is more entertaining to watch when there is not such a strict emphasis on defense