VM1138

So you want to replace a 25-30 goals corer with a prospect or a third liner?

It's not any more stressful than if they were still in the playoffs.

And, by the way, NHL.com just reported that Luongo has said he will waive his No-Trade Clause.

If Parise signs here, that's who he'll be playing with. Everyone associated with the Wings who has commented on the search for a top line scorer has said they would be a winger for Datsyuk.

Teams will want Luongo. Especially teams without frequent playoff performances. True, he generally falls apart in the playoffs, but he's a goalie who can get them there and that counts for something when you've got a bunch of no-name goalies. Luongo in some small struggling market could put butts in the seats.

And, because the Wings are done so early, there will be an extra month of these types of threads. Joy.

Me, too. He's been a prominent part of the Wings success over the years. But I concur with previous posters: No GM should want to start off in Montreal.

LA is riding the "upstart" roller coaster. St. Louis is a deeper, better team with a better coach. Their collective inexperience will probably make this a messy series, so I'll say Blues in 7.

I will follow the series online, but I probably won't watch any games. As much as I love hockey, my life is just too busy, and not having cable means I'd have to dig around for streams and sit on my computer all night. So as far as watching hockey goes, I'm probably done until one of the last games of the Finals. It's hard to justify to people letting hockey take up 80% of my free time when my team isn't even playing.

The Wings are still a prime destination. Early playoff exits didn't deter the likes of Brett Hull, Luc Robitaille and Dominik Hasek from coming here in 2002. And we've got a lot of money to throw around this season.

Holland makes fewer mistakes than any other GM. And on top of that, a lot of what people consider his "mistakes" are actually just real-world restraints placed on him, like the past trade deadline. 2010 and 2011 were injury riddle years where we didn't get to see what sort of team we had. It was only natural for him to take a wait and see approach, since the same team went to the finals 2 years straight before the injuries hit. Then, this is the first year we got a good look at where the team is, and it wasn't pretty. Cut him some slack.

Whatever the matchup is, I think the Cup stays in the East this year. The West just truly lacks a dominant team this year.

Nashville boasts the better goalie and better defense. I'll say Phoenix can steal a game or two, but Nashville in 6.

It starts... http://www.freep.com/article/20120423/SPORTS05/204230383/1053/sports05 "Fabian Brunnstrom likely to get another shot with Wings."

I don't know about Nyquist. He's talented, but I just don't see that "star" spark in him. I could be wrong, though, and I hope I am.

I'm not articulating a conspiracy argument, but I'm cynical enough to know that when there's a great, marketable storyline chances are it'll come true. The Pens have been doing well enough without Crosby, and now that he's back he's just as good as he ever was. They've won 11 straight. Now, in a normal circumstance, teams cool off, but since it's the Pens and Crosby has to be one of the luckiest guys around (disappearing and then scoring huge game winning goals for example), does his hot return mean that the Pens should be penciled in as Cup favorites? The only other "storybook" team would be the Blues, but since they're not the Penguins I don't see their luck holding out. I haven't followed the Pens that much this year, though, are they deep enough for a long run? They're up there in team scoring while they were missing Crosby the entire season, so that's quite an accomplishment. Any other teams turning into Cup favorites yet?

I'm excited. There are a lot of good names on that UFA list.

Signing Semin is just laughable. No thanks.

Holy crap that's ridiculously high, and I hate Torres. The hit was suspension-worthy, but it wasn't one of the worst hits I've seen this year. 25 games is ridiculous. I've liked Shanny so far but it's either nothing or too much with him lately.

Agreed. Franzen shouldn't be traded because he's awesome scoring depth. The trouble is, he only scores when he feels like it so we shouldn't rely on him to spark our offense. Holland should go get a hard working sniper or power forward who will drive the net and score consistently, and then Franzen will just be this great plus on our offensive lines. If he's traded all of a sudden we're worse off offensively which doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

You are right. Homer is not useless, it's just that his value no longer outweighs the costs of having him on the ice. He's still a PP specialist, he still works harder than anyone, and he is the last real agitator we have on the team. I'd hate to see him go, but unless he's an extra forward I don't see room for him.

I knew there was trouble as soon as I read a Freep article about how the Wings needed Filppula to become sniper and save the day. When your hopes rest on Flip, you're in trouble. I think the experiment involving hoping players play above their normal skill levels is over. A team full of role players, most very good in their own right, just doesn't do anything if they can't score consistently. I fully expect a strong faceoff specialist and a top line scorer to join the team in the summer. There are a lot of possible scenarios, but we could end up seeing something like this: Parise-Datsyuk-Zetterberg Franzen-Faceoff Specialist-Bertuzzi Nyquist-Filppula-Eaves Miller-Helm-Abdelkader I doubt Flip would be on the 3rd line, but that could potentially be a Cup winning forward corps right there.

Babcock's post-game interview called attention to the lack of offensive depth. Being outspoken about it, I bet that Holland addresses it. We need to keep Franzen, he's still good for 25 goals a season. But due to his streakiness we can no longer RELY on him to get us out of a hole. Ergo, sign another big name and relegate Franzen to awesome secondary scoring. Also it's clear we need someone who goes to the net, carrying the puck, rather than dropping it back to a trailer who loses it to the other team.

THis series was a disappointment. But the one good thing is that it exposed the inherent weakness at forward. But really, this is the first year in over 15 years that the Wings didn't feel mighty. No teams talked about how great the Wings were, there was very little talk all season about how they are a dangerous team. The last two seasons were disappointments but playoff failures were due to injuries or bad reffing. This one the Wings just plain lost. But it feels a bit like 2001 here. Holland and Babcock will make the right moves and reload. That's what the Wings do.

The home win streak was basically it. Personally, I got to go to the 5-0 Buffalo game which was awesome, but on the whole this season has been the first one in ten years which held almost no magic for me. It just seemed off from the beginning.