VM1138

I don't see why Pittsburgh has twice the odds any other team does, but I agree with Detroit being about on par with Chicago and the Rangers. It was a fluke. Nobody says New Jersey was the best team in the East this year.

I hope not. I read that piece some website posted about Paranteau and he sounds like a real risk. If we let Hudler go, we're not likely to find a 25 goal scorer for the 3-4 million people are talking about here. If you get rid of him he needs to be replaced or else our offense is right back where it was.

I'm thinking about this possibility, too. But he's got to know deep down that that Jersey team is not going to the finals again any time soon. Despite early playoff losses, Detroit knows how to win and they are in the best position to reshape their team and make a deep run for the Cup they've been in for years. If I'm a player, I want to be a part of that. It's not often when a team with a winning history gets a chance to basically buy whoever they want to stack the team.

So let them trade his rights. He's read the papers, he knows the Wings want him. If he's interested, he just won't sign with the new team. No worries.

Yes, it is. The NHL, NBA and MLB have similar playoff lengths. The MLB is a joke when it comes to athleticism. As someone else previously noted, in the NFL you are only out there for a few plays and while it's a physical game it's not consistent physicality. A few seconds and boom, you're done. So that leaves the NHL and the NBA. The NBA is hardly a physical sport anymore and again, and to compare it to the NHL is a joke. So yeah, the Cup is the hardest to win.

See, this is what I'm thinking. This was so flukey, that even with the talent they have, I just don't see them sniffing the Cup for at least another 15 years (to throw out a random number). Even with all their success I still would never consider them in the "powerhouse" category and see them more as an Edmonton type fluke from a few years back.

No way he goes to Toronto if he ever wants to win anything. He's looking for a long-term home and he's less likely to want to take on a reclamation project because of it. It wastes too much time as he's entering his prime. I'd say he'd have to narrow it down to Detroit and the Rangers if he wants to win for years to come but still be able to say he was "the final piece" for those teams, so to speak. Minnesota is a dark horse just because of his personal connections. I still don't see how he goes anywhere other than Detroit, though IF he leaves New Jersey as previously planned. A deep cup run can change minds.

It's not an ideal situation to be in by any means. Ideally a contract could be worked out with a lower cap hit and maybe laden with performance incentives and bonuses? At any rate, if I were a GM I'd be less concerned about what it said to the locker room than being able to ice a good team four years from now. But I'm a long-term kind of guy.

I think we sign players regardless of the CBA talks. We know we absolutely have to fill these holes in the roster at the very least. So we need Parise and Suter, regardless of the cap. Holland will deal with the fallout after the CBA is replaced. I like the idea of Crosby getting 9 million a year for 10 years, though. If Crosby gets 9, I can't see a lot of these other players pushing for 8 just because they had a decent year or two. Parise could come to us for 7.5 or maybe even under.

That's what I was thinking. I have a newfound respect for the Sharks. They knew they were getting him either way, or at least were among the finalists (LA and Anaheim being the unlikely suitors), but they still offered us something. I looked at Murray's stats, and they don't seem too atrocious. They dipped this year but so did the Sharks in general. I think we should definitely try to sign him and keep him as bottom 6 insurance. He's done around 10 points over 40 games. Not a game changer, but could be another energy guy.

Getting excited, even though I don't care about either team. The Cup is just that special. On the other hand, this has been a pretty lackluster game. LA has looked good, as usual, but bleh. Place is quiet, playoffs have been dull.

Isn't it funny that corporate sponsors get first dibs, even though they are the ones likely to not show up or send a bunch of people who don't care about the game? That's business, I guess. Sucks that there are so many strings attached to the tickets, that might cause people to hesitate a bit, but the prices aren't as outrageous as I thought they'd be.

Why is he being discussed so much lately? He's not going to leave Winnipeg. They'd be one of the worst managed teams to let him go.

Because ratings do generally indicate the quality of the playoffs for one. Even hockey fans aren't tuning in because they aren't interested. We need people to watch hockey to A) keep it on TV and B) keep enough revenue coming in to keep the NHL solvent. It's not that hard. We don't care about other people accepting our sport, we just want to keep interest high enough to guarantee a high quality league.

I think goalie will be one of the more understated signings this off-season. Holland will go for an unlikely player, probably someone young to challenge Howard. As far as defense, I personally think he's going to sign a Top 6 player (like Parise) but also sign another scorer, not just a gritty fourth liner. We'll be losing Hudler, too, remember. But I think that second scorer is more of a Hudler-type, 2nd-3rd line depth. But if we don't replace him we're not any better off than we were this season, even if we sign Parise.

Once you live a live like he has, it's nearly impossible to break free from it. It's sad and I wish him the best. He's a Detroit sports icon and I hope all these psychos leave him alone so he can continue rebuilding his life.

Don't know anything about him, but I like the fact that Holland will pull the trigger right away on the 1st.

These playoffs have been largely anti-competitive. Not saying they are bad, but compared to the last 5 years or so where every series was a grind-out, balls to the wall competition, this year has been really, really dull, unless you are a fan of these teams, I guess. And 15-2 is insane, especially for an 8th seed. How did they luck out like that? It just doesn't make sense. I know they're playing well, but great teams don't even go 15-2. They could easily have gone 16-0, but no one could consider this team one of the greatest ever. Just bizarre...but I hope they sweep the Devils.

Would love either one of them if we can't land Suter or Parise, but I think they'd be far too difficult and too expensive to get.

1) No way we get rid of Helm. 2) While Green could replace Lidstrom's offensive production, it would make us much worse defensively. And as frustrated as we all get with Franzen at times, people seem to forget he's our leading goal scorer, you don't just dump that. If we got rid of Franzen and got Parise, we didn't improve (except in work ethic) offensively.

Yeah, everyone loved Tim Thomas until he expressed his opinion. It's amazing how petty people are.

Holland signs Parise and Suter anyways. Regardless of the cap, we need them. Then he waits for the CBA to determine how many role players and depth changes he can make.

We shouldn't count our chickens before they hatch, but with half the team decimated and lots of money to spend there's really no excuse to field an awesome team next season.

He just mentioned Filppula as one of the three captain candidates. Shudder.

Not only do we need to upgrade the team in the areas we all know about, now we need to replace Lidstrom and likely Holmstrom. Massive, massive changes are coming.