GoWings1905

Yeah, because having Tootoo will suddenly give Blues fans a reason to hate the Red Wings. I hope his first dirty moment comes at the expense of Jackman.

Avisail Garcia is getting called up by the Tigers. You figure they intend to play him or there wouldn't be much of a purpose to have one of your better prospects sitting the bench. Also, I went to the Mud Hens game last night and wow talk about having absolutely no prospects in the field. Don Kelly played, Ryan Raburn didn't, though I bet both will be back up with the Tigers soon. I was interested to see some of the relief pitching there, however. Daniel Schlereth still blows. A lot. He isn't coming to Detroit even with Coke struggling. Walked three guys and couldn't finish the inning. Luis Marte was really good. AlAl didn't pitch. Bruce Rondon is electric and a future closer. Blew a save, but his velocity is unreal. Hit 100+ multiple times. EDIT: Just saw Jeff Baker got DFA and Garcia is coming before September 1st. That trade for Baker didn't work out so well.

That was one pathetic series. Had major chances in all three games to win in the 9th and again nobody can come up with a clutch hit. Bigger issue though is scoring one lousy run in two days against Bruce Chen and Jeremy Guthrie. How can a team built on power be so inept at hitting homers? They can't manufacture runs with speed, so you get nights like this a lot with a single run on a dozen hits. Orioles took three of four from the White Sox and the Tigers answer is a sweep to the Royals. Absolutely have to take minimum two of three this weekend against the White Sox. The Tigers are a different team at home and have their three best pitchers going, so they have a huge opportunity to make a statement. Hopefully the offense makes an appearance.

I can't stand Delmon Young. Outside of a couple weeks this season, he has been brutal. Compounding the issue is the fact he bats 5th behind Cabrera and Fielder. You couldn't ask for a better spot to hit. A DH that doesn't hit for much power nor drive in runs and certainly never takes walks. Teams have caught on and will pitch around one or both of Miggy and Prince because they know no one behind them will make them pay. Everything that makes V-Mart so valuable and Young doesn't do any of it. There's no way he is back with the Tigers next season. Thankfully Dirks has been excellent or imagine how sorry the corner outfield would look. Boesch is a joke offensively and defensively, Berry runs fast and Baker has been a bust addition. Avila and Peralta played over their heads last season. I'm not upset really with either of them really because I think this year is more representative of who they are. This team is either really exciting to watch or infuriating. The starting pitching has the potential to do damage if they make the playoffs, but I don't have much confidence the offense can score runs against quality pitching.

Not sure dropping two straight to the Royals and getting shutout by Bruce Chen is the best way to take over first place. Nobody after Fielder in the order can hit on a consistent basis. The Tigers desperately need a corner outfielder or two next season until Castellanos is ready. Having a DH that actually hits will be nice too.

Henrik Lundqvist on an overrated list? Is he supposed to score goals too in addition to being the best goalie in hockey for the Rangers to win? Mike Green is the first name that comes to mind for overrated for me. MAF is a great example others have mentioned. I would throw Patrick Kane in the category too.

I thought HR too from the first angle, but the outfield camera was more clear and it looked foul to me. Cabrera just needed to hit a fly ball in the 9th to tie, so the Tigers had a chance even with the disputed call. Very strange play in a wild game. Disappointing with Verlander pitching and the White Sox losing to not make up a game in the standings. Phil Coke is just terrible. I have no confidence he will come in and not allow runs. Leyland gets too caught up in lefty/righty matchups out of the pen. Coke isn't effective at getting out either so leave Villareal in. Can't wait for this weekend against the White Sox. Tigers need to take advantage with Fister, Max and JV starting. Can't ask for more than that.

Glad the Red Wings are ranked high and rightfully so. The Tigers home whites are the best uniforms in sports IMO. Simple, classic and spectacular all combined.

How is Redden anywhere comparable? Bouwmeester has his faults (especially for that contract), but he still plays 25 minutes per game in the NHL. Sure, you can get Redden for nothing but that's only because he's actually worth nothing.

Definitely would like this signing for depth purposes. He is my favorite of the remaining free agent d-men, though to be fair, there isn't much to choose from. Still would love to see someone more in the mold of Stuart added as well. Ericsson is really the only defensive minded player on the team now. A PK specialist/shot blocking d-man is a huge need.

Based on the needs of the team right now, absolutely Nick Lidstrom for me. Sentimental purposes it would be Stevie Y or Ozzie.

Two more years of dangle dangle isn't enough for me. Pav is so exciting to watch. I just hope the Red Wings are competitive when his contract is up to give him some real incentive to stick around.

I'm sure he will look excellent on some other team's lines thread as a 4th line center.

I know Babcock is high on Brunner, but I would still be very suprised to see him in a top-six spot right from the start. There's going to be a major adjustment period coming to the NHL and the Red Wings don't typically rush players into large roles. Lines change all the time, but here's my preference as of now: Franzen - Datsyuk - Nyquist Filppula - Zetterberg - Samuelsson (prefer a healthy Cleary more, but Sammy needs someone like Z) Cleary - Helm - Eaves (will likely be Bertuzzi here; think Eaves meshes better with Helm) Miller - Abdelkader - Tootoo No clue what to do with Bertuzzi -- I just know another season of Pavel playing with Franzen and Bert isn't the answer. I don't believe the Red Wings will actually scratch Bertuzzi, so Miller/Eaves rotating in and out of the lineup is probably a more realistic scenario. I honestly could do without both Bertuzzi and Samuelsson on the team altogether at this point.

Great analysis provided there. The Red Wings certainly have holes, but the aging Europeans line is stupidity. The team has gotten drastically younger the past two off-seasons now. Seems like uneducated "experts" have used the same garbage to declare the Red Wings dead for a decade now. The Wings' twitter comeback was awesome too. They have come a long way in the social media world since Tom Wilson arrived.

Absolutely not. Having to answer for clean hits is a huge problem in the game right now. Players take offense to anything it seems like. If Kronwall was running people in a dirty fashion, then I would understand.

Hasek. It wasn't even so much I disliked him -- it was more the fact that he wasn't Ozzie. I could never really get behind fully supporting Dom in net because I had grown to like Osgood so much over the years. Needless to say, the 2008 playoffs with the Ozzie storyline is a favorite moment of mine.

7th seems pretty fair to me. I would say right now the Kings, Canucks, Blues are the three divisional favorites. After that, I think you could lump the Red Wings in the second tier with the Coyotes, Sharks, Blackhawks, Predators and maybe the Wild too. There is usually always a surprise team too that is stronger than expected -- I actually think the Ducks will be quite a bit improved and contend for the playoffs. The West will be very competitive as usual, except for the first time in forever, I don't see the Red Wings as a playoff lock.

Ahead of Miller and Eaves? The two best penalty-killing forwards after Helm and also two players that will/have easily outscore(d) Emmerton too? Miller was a huge part of the third line being very successful when Helm was healthy last season and Eaves is more than capable of doing the same as well. The only forward I would maybe consider Emmerton ahead of right now is Brunner and that's only because he has never played a shift in the NHL. Even so, his potential is more exciting than whatever Emmerton provides (nothing).

Define these "others" that Emmerton will dress ahead of assuming the full group of forwards are healthy. The Red Wings have an excess of forwards as it is and Emmerton is the worst of the bunch. It isn't really popular opinion. It's most sensible fans recognizing that Emmerton offers very little to the team.

I think you could easily make a case for any of those players listed for MVP. Just an unbelievable collection of talent and all of them were terrific during that playoff run. Not to take anything away from Nick because he earned it, but Stevie was the MVP for me. He played on literally one knee and rallied the team from down 0-2 in the first round. As for favorite player, that's a slam dunk. Stevie Y wins any time his name shows up there for me.

- Penguins 2009 - Ducks 2003 - Oilers 2006 - Sharks 2010 (the officiating) - Predators 2012

Another rough start for Sanchez. Not really digging giving up Turner for him at all. Thought it was overpayment for a likely rental at the time and Smyly was doing just fine as the 5th starter. Sanchez probably is the odd man out in a playoff rotation anyways. Still think corner outfield was a much bigger need than another starting pitcher.

Experience compared to which players he would be competing against? Mursak is young and faster if those are Emmerton's best assets. I don't expect Emmerton to put up big numbers playing on the 4th line, but that further elaborates my point really. His offensive ceiling isn't high enough to assume a bigger role and ideally you would like your 4th line to do something other than nothing, which is what the Red Wings got last season. Putting Abdelkader at center, adding Tootoo to the mix, plus having Eaves/Miller as well gives you a useful 4th line that actually provides energy while also having the ability to contribute offensively. Emmerton is solely a skill player, with minimal skill. A surprise would be if Emmerton somehow even makes the team.

Excellent elaboration on why you feel that way. Care to provide what you see in Emmerton that nearly no one else here does?