RedWings Gone Wild

It's working tonight, but not normally. If you notice the standings, they kinda suck. oh, and, btw, GOAL

Holland has already come out and said that there is no truth behind this rumor. So, nuff said. Link

Considering how he's basically committed to being a Wing for life, one would assume that the management will reward him with a leadership role. Not to mention his work ethic, clutch performances, etc.

Zetterberg has been groomed for the C for a long time now. Out of the new blood he was the first one to get an A (and he's a season younger than Datsyuk in Detroit). He's got the work ethic to inspire teammates, and he is a proven winner. I don't really think there is anyone who has been with the organization long enough to even get consideration over him, besides possibly Datsyuk, but I don't see that because of the language barrier. My guess for A: Dats and Franzen

Since you don't recall, our depth was the entire reason we were able to perform in the playoffs. Our top tier guys were the ones that were less than effective... Datsyuk was injured and less than spectacular, Hossa was a no-show, Lids was out for a bit, Rafalski was out for a bit, Holms was injured and very average... That's practically a #1 scoring line performing subpar. Our depth was contributing very nicely.... Cleary had his best games in the playoffs, same with Franzen, Helm, Abdel, and Flip was offensively more potent than he's ever been before or after (he outscored Hossa)...

I could really only see this happening if Raf was involved, which I wouldn't really be thrilled about (even tho he seems to be a leading candidate for LGW whipping boy). Everyone else is either signed to long to be worth trading, to valuable to the team, or simply has to little of a cap hit to really factor in to the trade. Osgood isn't going anywhere, because his cap hit is so low it wouldn't be enough to get Giggy. I would love to have Giggy in net, and I would be even happier to have 6 million free to spend when his contract is up at the end of next season... but I doubt this one.

I can't think of any mistakes he's made yet that have made me want to strangle him, which is more than I can say for most of the team. In my book that's a success!

Hence why I didn't proclaim it as the official end of the debate and initially said it was "a little bit of a nod to Malkin being the better of the two." Oh, and in 05-06 I would say Crosby had a pretty big issue without Malkin. They were 22-46-14 for a grand total of 58 points, as opposed to the 105 points in Malkin's rookie season the following year (not that I'm saying the turnaround has everything to do with Malkin). So, individual stats aside, 05-06 was not a very successful campaign.

Not a Crosby hater, I've watched more than my share my Pens games (playoffs and regular season), and I do think Crosby has more of a complete game. That being said, this really makes me question what has been pretty much a league-wide assumption (challenged only by Malkin's monster season last year), that Crosby is better. And if I recall correctly (dont have the time to look it up) Malkin was dealing with Gonchar's absence last year as well while Crosby was out.

The interesting thing with the Penguins vanishing offense isn't whether or not it will return (it will), but that with Malkin out Crosby has been unable to respond the way Malkin did the times Crosby was injured. I think this is a little bit of a nod to Malkin being the better of the two. The past two seasons when Crosby went down the team stayed the course, or in some cases improved... Without Malkin Crosby's gone on his longest pointless streak (5 games).

This pickup basically translates to: Just because there are injuries, doesn't mean Leino, Maltby, May, Eaves, and Abdelkader are all guaranteed playing time. As much as anything, this is probably designed to light a fire under some of the guys who have been slacking.

I think tonight and tomorrow night will give us a pretty good indication as to how the Wings will handle being so short-handed. Columbus and Vancouver are both middle of the pack teams, so a couple of wins would be huge for the division and conference standings.

Cleary gets 18:36 in ice time, was invited to Team Canada's camp, and had a playoffs where he was threatening to become a regular offensive threat. Since then he has degraded considerably, and has been invisible for the vast majority of this young season. A pretty big choke considering he had a tiny chance of justifying an invitation to Vancouver. I would consider him easily the biggest disappointment of the season thus far, minus the injuries to the different guys. Bert has had his chances, but has also committed some of the ugliest turnovers by anyone not named Lebda. Leino hasn't put much up on the sheet, but I'd say he's had his chances, and also plays significantly less with 13:29.

What's frustrating to me is that the league is so lame and ineffective that it almost always refuses to make an example out of a player unless it's a monster injury (ala Moore, tho Bert only got 20+ games for it). With all the head shots happening and the injuries all over the league, it's really baffling that the league isn't cracking down heavily on no-brainer suspensions like this one. 3 games? Big f-ing deal. Drury will probably be gone quite a big longer than 3 games. The NHL executives are just such huge panzies.

I hear this type of comment a lot, and I simply don't buy it. He's shown to be very durable, and even this injury seems to be pretty minor. Look at any other big star who's come into the league recently and you'll see they've all suffered longer and more threatening injuries than Ovie: Semin, Crosby, Malkin, Kopitar, etc..

The players won't stop playing... if anything, the NHLPA's mess means it is more likely they would continue playing (hard to get the solidarity necessary to stop playing with a splintered union)... The CBA is still 100% functional until it expires. However, if the players don't get the union together before the CBA expires one of two things will happen: A. they will be a mess at the negotiating table and we'll have to slug our way through another year of nothing. or B. they'll get ridiculously taken advantage of by the owners. Neither of which is good longterm for the NHL.

They were tanking with Ward in net. I would be surprised if there was a different result with Legace. The southeast is always one of the worst divisions in hockey, so there may be to many weak division foes to get them enough losses for the top pick, but i'd be surprised if they made the playoffs. 2-11-3 is pretty damn ugly.

They need to get Price out of Montreal before the poor kid kills himself. I never thought I'd see him in Montreal again after his quasi-meltdown in the playoffs last year. Bad enough having to deal with Montreal fans, but cut-throat agents too.. nasty

Always felt Luc was overrated and "lucky," as his nickname would imply, but I'd still have to go with the 09 class.

If I was a Pens fan I would be more concerned about the fact that their offense has looked dead with Malkin and Gonchar out of the lineup. Without the two of them at 100%, I would say a repeat as champs is highly unlikely.

Maybe sacrificing Lebda to them would appease them.

Us making the playoffs is not a guarantee... and the Ducks probably won't make it. They were a better team last year and they were still only the 8th seed, not like we're talking about a major drop off from them. I agree tho that Wills getting hurt is a big deal. With Franzen, Flip, and Williams out we've basically lost an entire scoring line for months. So, it should bother you that we let in 5 goals to a vastly inferior team, because with the exception of a 3 game effort, that's pretty much been the trend this season. And don't do what other LGW posters are doing and try to make the Leafs into some great team just because they beat us.

sooooo...... I guess I should put the time machine away.

Well, I agree, I do think some of the guys on the team could use a little bit of a verbal lashing, and I'm not sure there's anyone in the organization with that type of personality with the credibility to go with it... but the man is 100

Mike Peca and Satan are still free agents right?