stormboy

as we've talked about before...it makes me sad that helm will be in the ahl. but what else are we going to do? i'd love for him to make the team, but in place of whom? i'm sure someone will get injured at some point and we'll be seeing him around.

p.s. thanks, NFM. you said was i was too tired and crabby to articulate before bed last night/this morning.

i wasn't talking about eva....whatever. i've been up for way too long. time to get some sleep. sorry if i'm being a *****.

i guess i just don't see the point of a whole bunch of people being like "ZOMG NOOB!!!ONEONE!!!"

glad to hear that no one's calling it dirty. i think it's one of those situations where it appears late when you watch it in slow motion, but at real-time speed, no one would have been able to hold up in that short of time when they were already going in for a hit. it's somehow similar (in my mind) to the hit that was put on j-willy a couple of years ago, that knocked him out and left a bunch of blood on the ice. clean hit, williams was just skating one way and looking another and was in no way braced for impact. add to that an unlucky fall and it's game over. (you can get hit that hard but still not have the full force of the impact go to your head, in which case the consequence obviously isn't as severe.)

aww, the lgw elites found a thread to identify themselves as part of the in-group. that's cute.

wat?

back to 50-50. attack attack attack!

day-ummm. the tv/entertainment room looked amazing. i mean, nick's obviously has a pretty modest demeanor, but you can't tell you wouldn't buy that same s*** if you made 7m a year...which is sort of funny, because that's peanuts compared to what athletes in most other north american sports make. imagine what you would buy if you made 20m a year.

i mean, it always sucks when a player gets injured...but i somehow have less sympathy for the guy when he hurt it getting out of a golf cart. the word "preventable" comes to mind. as if the blues need any help sucking.

makes sense. we'll probably just see commercials more frequently after other types of stoppages.

damn, dude. that is effing awesome. now i have to clean up all my miscellanious desktop icons so they're not covering henrik's face! there was one depressing bit about downloading this, though: i hadn't checked the tv schedule, and i didn't realize the first regular season game was going to be on *versus*. i dealt with "doc" and "edzo" all playoffs...i want ken and mickey back!!! i guess i'll have to wait a few extra days. by the way, and this may be the wrong place to ask this (again, i just haven't looked at the tv sched. before now) is fsn+ standard on, say, comcast in west michigan? 'cause i really wanna see that ducks game; it's actually on a night that i don't work third shift. anyway, really, really great desktop, man. you do your red wings proud.

whether or not this is realistic or not remains to be seen, but i one hundred percent agree with the sentiment. obviously, you can't be a wings fan without loving stevie y, but overall, i'm very happy with holland as gm. yeah, bertuzzi trade, whatever. it's been discussed a million times--like any great anything, you're not really great unless you take some risks. whatever. i'm happy. at least he didn't trade a future hall-of-fame catcher away for more of the same s***ty relief pitching. *shrug* at the same time, if the man still wants to move up in the game, let him do so--we owe him that much, at least. (if you love something, you've got to let it go -- the hoodies.) but i think it'd be brilliant if, say, holland retires, and 19 has done a bit of gm'ing around the league and wants to come back here for the last few years of his executive career...what a storybook ending. *shrug* we can keep dreaming. at this point, i'll agree that yzerman probably doesn't have enough executive "experience" to be a great gm, but i have a hard time seeing someone else being a better judge of talent and character. he's got the ability, i think, just needs to refine the skills.

oh, god, i didn't no hossa was such a ******* frat boy. i hope i never see him in anything but a wings jersey ever again.

their costs have absolutely nothing to do with the price. the convenience for me is not having to drive 2 1/2 hours each way (say, roughly, $75 in gas) to buy a ticket at the box office. in this case, demand drives the prices, not supply. if they're a self-interested, rational company with good access to information and smart people, they must realize that as much as people ***** they'll still pay the "convenience" fee every time. it's just like increased prices for certain games. if they're not a dumb company, they realize that people will pay the extra money, so why not charge it? re: high gas prices affecting ticket sales. i agree that it definitely has an effect. i think to some degree, it's more psychological than it is financial. obviously, to some degree the literal dollars and cents spent on gas prevent you from doing certain things. but if you're affluent enough to go to several games a year, the extra gas money is probably not going to prevent you from buying groceries for the week. however, when you see the price at the station (and keep on hearing on the news how gas is going up up up) it makes you tighten your purse strings. i also agree with the poster who stated that america is different than europe in that things are generally much more spread out here. obviously, there are many places in europe where people have long commutes, etc. but where i live (grand rapids) it is a very, very common thing for people to commute from, say, rockford. even the smaller town where i'm from, i met my girlfriend at a church in my hometown, but her house was 12 miles away from mine. it seems to me that, generally, that's much more the way things are in the states, at least in michigan, which is by-and-large rural, and heavily unemployed. anyway, this is a hockey forum, not an econ board. either way, don't think a ton of wings games will sell out this year. the ones that do won't be full anyway. the ones that are full will still have a high percentage of fans who don't wear team colors and who sit complacently in their seats except for the five seconds after each wings goal is scored.

yeah, challenge him to post on a swedish hockey forum. i'll never criticize someone's use of english until i can speak their language as well as i expect them to use mine. re: the topic. i really don't think it'll be a big deal. and even if it is, whatever, i guess we'll have to win the cup with the same roster we did last year. *shrug* as long as he's healthy for the playoffs, we'll still be in even better shape than we were last year. z of course is always a worry, but say hossa's injured for the start of the season. "wings start without star forwards hossa," would be the headline, i guess, but that same headline could just as well read, "wings are as good as they were last season." which, to me, is a positive headline rather than a negative one. i do have to disagree with the OP on describing it as an "investment," though, only because it's a one-year signing that affects nothing of our future. if we'd signed him for three years at the same price and he was out for 2/3 of each season, but prevented us from re-signing zetterberg and/or franzen, then to me, that's a bad investment. i have to believe that the red wings organization *could* afford to dole out well more than what the cap allows. so i don't think his salary is going to hamstring the organization for one year. all that being said, i still like our chances with hossa better than without, and i sure to hell hope he's healthy. but i refuse to panic at this point. like we always say at my job when anything goes wrong (which it always does) : it'll be fine...

there's a good chance this video has already been posted, so don't flame me if it has. but i was watching wings videos on youtube tonight and this one got me more fired up than any other, and with less than a month left in the off season, i don't think it's too early to start getting pumped. two years ago, i believe datsyuk would have skated away, not wanting to get involved. put, as his points production has gone up, so has this action. people slammed our team for being weak...but our SKILL players take on their tough guys. so, yes, it's another "let's get ready for the season thread." but please, enjoy this clip. go wings.

i'm going to go ahead and agree whole-heartedly with this statement. at the same time, i guess, they choose that spotlight, so they should be ready do live with the consequences (i.e., intense public scrutiny). but, as much as i love talking politics, this is a hockey forum...... i'll agree with this as well. it's hard for me to see lids+dats+z+franzen+stuart(?)+hossa ALL taking "home-town" ('cause let's be honest, it's ours, not theirs) discounts. the more that do, the happier a fan i'll be, and the better the wings will be. but when you're as good as those (or most of those) players, it's real, real hard not to take an extra few mil a year to change cities. i mean, even look at it in percentages. (raw figures don't really tell the story: obviously, if someone offered you two more million over your 30k a year job, it would be a no-brainer.) if hank has to take, say, 6.5 to keep the wings under the cap, and some other team is offering him 8. that's almost a 20% raise. that's, for an (upper) middle class working person, 10k a year off a 50k job. ******* hard to turn down. so much moreso when the percentages are amplified by large salaries. i'm rambling: you can't fault the players or the organization if all our star players can't stay here. it's simple economics and rational human self-interest. i honestly lol'd when i read that. if hank and his wife are signing a deal, who's the GM in that situation? god? get 'er done, jesus!

the conversation has changed a bit since page two or so, but i just wanted to make a comment on the datsyuk and zetterberg being ranked higher than lidstrom debate. if i was a coach and i had to pick one of those players, i'd probably pick nick. but if i could pick two of those three, i'd probably get 13 and 40 rather than lidstrom and one of the others. now obviously that list is a rank of individuals. but, just my opinion: lidstrom>datsyuk, lidstrom>zetterberg, but datsyuk+zetterberg>lidstrom+rafalski (or whoever). >/< in terms of how much i would want them on my team. *shrug* but that's just me, and i've been wrong before. and again, this is *right now,* so i'm taking for granted that z and dats are in the prime of their careers and nick is in the dying days of his. five years ago, maybe different story. but if i had to start a team with players *right now,* that's my thinking.

right. i mean, after the first period, even if i was the winning team, i'd just want the game to be over. just play keep-away for long stretches of time. the game would take ******* forever with one team constantly scoring, then having to reset the puck, faceoff, etc. maybe the players all just wanted to rack up huge personal totals. *shrug* but, yeah, it seems like there should be some kind of mercy rule here. let's say when the game is 60-0 and the other team doesn't have a single shot on goal. that being said, i kind of want to see a short clip of the game just to see how it went. i certainly couldn't bear to watch the whole thing, though.

i didn't see the terms listed...i'm still a bit foggy on how the salary cap is figured with players playing mostly in the AHL but coming up occasionally for time with the wings. (this is just due to my own lack of research.) so assuming that kyle playes most of this season with the griffs, does that mean the numbers won't affect the cap? in that case, wouldn't trading him have no effect on the cap? i know this has been discussed to death here, so feel free not to respond. just typing my thoughts. thanks for the post.

datsyuk must have enthusiasm. ozzie must be focused. kronwall must be healthy. draper must win faceoffs. hossa must have chemistry. cleary must re-find some of his scoring ability. franzen must not lose all of his. lilja must not f*** up at the most inopportune times. zetterberg must give 100% every minute of every game. lidstrom must not slow down. homer must stay tenacious. stuart must hit. overall, the team must avoid late-season injuries. all of these things are very very possible. if these (and more, obviously) are true, we'll be a wicked hard team to beat. however, nothing says that any number of these things may not be true next season (or for parts of it, and to varying degrees). depending on the severity of individual drop-off (particularly, imo, ozzie and franzen--two guys whose amazing play helped us win the cup, but by most measures were playing above-average towards the end of last year) things get harder and harder for us. god i can't wait for the season to start.

QFT; that was just what i was going to say. if you're the sole corn retailer in an area that requires corn for subsitance, charging high prices that bankrupt people would be gouging. prices for entertainment, if the business is properly run, will be as high as demand would allow. like anything else, hockey is a business; the owners are out to make as much money as possible. they're not there to give us a good time watching hockey. of course, if giving us that good time makes them money, they provide the service at the price that maximizes their income. sometimes raising prices will make sense even if you sell a few less tickets. if the people who have the money will pay more, then losing a few people who won't pay the extra is worth it. it's easy to have a reactionary response to things like this as if it's some injustice. but really, watching sport is a luxury, not a human right. as such, those who can afford it get to enjoy it.

hossa has a no-trade clause? i mean, not that i expected him to get traded anyway, but i did not realize that. that's good news. god DAMN i cannot wait for hockey season to start.

eight five-game win streaks is very possible, imo. the question is, would a ten-game win streak count as two five-game win streaks? that might affect the statistics. i don't watch a lot of football, but from what little i've seen/read, seven wins seems like the max for this years' lions.