55fan

Lilja's safe. He's July 13th. Drake is Monday (2/4) and Kop is Tuesday (2/5). My dad said something about him not getting guys that are older than he is. We'll see.

As I understand it, if he is offered a contract in GR, he could be called up in the event of injuries. Please correct me if I'm wrong. We all asked who he would replace. I guess the answer would be Hartigan. That said, I don't want to see any Wings injured.

Meech scores. I can feel it in my bones. Or maybe that's my arthritis......

If I heard right, I believe they said this was Dom's 80th career shutout. Way to go, young man! Budaj looked very good (actually, sounded good- I was listening to the game). I'd like to see him traded to a team I could actually root for.

Wings win. Cheli scores to prove he's not old. Lebda scores to prove he's not injured. Homer scores to prove he can do it without getting called for something. Nick scores to make up for being the only Nick/Nik on the ice (GWS, Lil Nik). Sammy gets a hattie to give fans playing the Sammy game bad hangovers. Zata and Dats get assists on all goals (as in either/or, not both on all).

Bless your sweet heart! Kronner is out. Injuries happen in this game. He'll be back, and then we can evaluate how it has effected him. Until then, we play on. Like we did without Zetterberg and Homer. I hope they call up Quincey. I grew fond of him last spring.

The thought of a D line- Downey, Drake and DMac has me DDDrooling. Seriously, at this point we have no idea what he might be like if he came back. It is like last summer when everyone was ready to throw Kronner on the next train out to Anywhere because he wasn't producing in the NHL. I argued that his Olympic play, World MVP and AHL play during the lockout (Eddie Shore award and lead the team in points) were all good indicaters for great potential. People thought that was all irrevalant because it wasn't NHL. Now we have Mac in the IHL. All we can judge is whether or not the potential is there. We can't measure him by the rest of the NHL because he's not playing in the NHL, but we can look at how he's doing compared to the level he is playing at. I don't see him getting it back in time to sign with us, or if he does, I don't see him getting a lot of ice time, barring injuries (knock wood for no injuries). I don't count him out for next year. Not by any means. Right now, it's all up to him, and he looks like he's giving it all he's got. Make it or not, you can't ask any more than that from a man. Best of luck, D. BTW- Thanks for all the updates, pics, etc.

Having "the NHL coaching ranks' best hairdo" ought to count for something as well. Stupid question here, but do they have any sort of a cap or minimum or anything for coaches/trainers/other personnel? Just curious. Let's get that contract signed!

Thanks for the insight on Burke, still MIGHTY. I will now admit that I was quite wrong about his role in this whole thing. I never thought that he sat Scott and Teemu down at the end of last season and told them to play this big game, but I certainly thought that he had some knowledge that they would be coming back and was able to use it to his advantage. At the very least, I assumed that he condoned the action once he took Scott back. I'm not bothered as much by Teemu. He had played out his contract. Scott, on the other hand, violated his by not showing up to play. It's quite one thing if a player gets called up mid-season from the AHL (or beer league, or whatever). It's another thing if they just show up at the end to enjoy the benefits of others' work. Someone had to work through training camp and get a spot on the roster, only to be bumped off once the better player decided to come back. If this happens because of a trade or, in Selanne's case, if he just decides to get a contract, that's the breaks. If it happens because a guy who has violated his contract and been suspended for it comes back and is welcomed with open arms, I can understand the guy who loses a spot on the team getting a bit cranky after putting in the hard work. I had assumed (wrongly, I now see) that Burke had this figured into the cap hit. I guess Scotty has more brains than I gave him credit for.

I agree that it would be nice to make the game really mean something and make it more competetive. I do not like the idea of home advantage in the playoffs based on the outcome of the game. So what if we take your idea of corporate sponser and add a twist? The players have already shown they aren't doing this for the money, but to promote the game. What if we took that million or two from sponsers and had a game for charity? The East could decide on a cause, and the West on another. Winner gets 2/3 of the pot for their charity, loser gets 1/3 for theirs. The players have incentive. The NHL gets recognition. Some worthy charities get a boost, and good is done for all. Just a thought.

Only on LGW do we bash the best players in the league and then wonder why the rest of the world doesn't take them seriously. OK, maybe it isn't only us. I can't say I get to other boards at all, but the point was well made, NFM25.

!st, 2nd and 3rd +/- amongst defencemen? Wow. That's just amazing. 1st and 4th goalies? Amazinger.

Gracious! You make it sound like I'm a Leafs fan or something. nah, can't commit suicide. I'd miss all the future Wings Cup wins. Aside from which, if I've lived this long as a die-hard Lions fan in the heart of Vikings and Packers territories, I can survive with listening online, reading GDTs and visiting my parents who have it all, channel-wise. If I ran the broadcasting world, I'd give PBS a grant to do a "diversity project" in which they showed a hockey game every night, and profiled a player from each game from another country and did a one-hour special before or after the game on that player's home country. Educational (thus meeting the requirements for PBS) and hockey every night. Perfect.

NBC is the only channel I get that has hockey. I love NBC! I wouldn't care if they had Chris Pronger as their announcer, I'd still love it! Wings! Wings! Wings! Whee!

Boy, last summer if you dared to say you believed in Kronner, they'd throw you in with him as trade bait. Most people were ready to go over to his house and pack up the kitchen for him. Heck, half the people around here had U-Haul on speed dial. Now he's doing fine. He's no Lidstrom, but then there's only one of those, and we already have him. I do believe that he is a perfectly good player and will only get better. Yeah, he has had injuries. Get your skate caught in a rut or someone's skate caught on your face and see how good you feel. Is this his year? We'll see. It may be, and he may have many more good ones to follow. I just hope if it happens, that it happens in Detroit. Oh, and by the way. He's had one birthday in 4 months since the season started, so if we get deep enough into the playoffs, he's on track for another

Oh! What a delightful way to put off homework and housework! Thank you! (#1 reserved for DMac should he come back) Kronner Zata Ozzie Flip Malts Drapes Nick Dom Homer Downey Drake Dats Sammy Cheli Cleary Rafalski Franzen Hudler Lebda Kopecky Lilja Ellis Not including Meech and Hartigan- not enough info.

I had said I wouldn't cry if Lilja wasn't re-signed. I've changed my mind. Re-sign him, but make off-season boxing lessons part of his contract. Problem solved.

Cleary and Babs are must-do re-signings. I won't cry if Lilja goes because i like what I saw of Quincey. That said, I'd like to keep Lilja. Flip is only going up. Keeper for sure.

Let's hope the Wings can take this one. Wings 3: Homer (from the point, which is as close as he can get to the crease without getting called). Lebda (cuz he had a b-day). Sammy (cuz he wants some love around here). Sharks 1: (and no one knows how the heck it happened). Go Wings! Go whichever of the Wizards of Domination is in net tonight!

I've never really appreciated Franzen (except in Calgary last year) but now I think I'm going to have to rethink my feelings towards him. I didn't realize Hudler and Kronwall were that good either. Great stats. Thanks for posting. BTW- I love that Eurotwins powers activate. I always had an unnatural crush on Zan. Which prompts the question: Which is Jana? Ah, but that's for another thread.

What about this guy? before the dental work No man is so fine as he who wears the Winged Wheel.

We should all take a lesson from Karen Newman and support our greatest assets, giving them a boost as needed, especially as they age. Go Dom! Go Ozzie! The best pair on the ice at the Joe!

I was reading the Rulebook this evening, and something struck me as odd. According to rule 5.1 (eligible players), "A team shall be composed of 20 players (18 skaters and two goalkeepers) who shall be under contract to the Club they represent." This would indicate to me that the goalies are considered "eligible players". Now on to the shootout rules (84.4): "All players are eligible to participate in the shootout unless they are serving a ten-minute misconduct or have been assessed a game misconduct or match penalty." Later it states: "After each team has taken three shots, if the score remains tied, the shootout will proceed to a "sudden death" format. No player may shoot twice until everyone who is eligible has shot." So my question is this: Would a backup goalie be eligible to participate in the shootout? Could they be forced to before someone else could shoot? I realize that this would not even be considered under normal circumstances; my question is theoretical in nature. I saw a video clip of Hasek playing a game for fun in the Czech Republic, and he was playing forward. He wasn't good, but he did score a goal. That's what got me wondering.

Great pics! And the little girl is adorable.

I almost wonder if they shouldn't have sat Z for the OTT game. That's not a knock on him by any means, but with the flu, he couldn't have been 100%. The one thing about the Wings is when we're without key players, the others step up. No one stepped up against Ottawa. Hindsight is 20/20, but maybe they'd have come out with a bit more fire had Z taken the night off to get well.