RedWings Gone Wild

Stuart.....

So, his mere presence within the state of Michigan was hampering them? Was it like suck filtering from the press box to the ice through osmosis?

I can't remember any other times this season where we had a 3 goal opening period.... or, excluding the when we owned the Jackets early on, a 3 goal period.

Two goals in a period? This must be a record.

I don't think you guys realize who we've gotten for Leino. Tollefsen holds all kinds of NHL records for Norwegians. NHL Records

For those saying Kozzy doesn't have it... He is just a season removed from being a ppg player, and the atmosphere in Atlanta, with Kovy rumors all season, isn't that fun to play in I imagine. He's always had a lot of ups and down, and with a change of scenery back to a legit team, I think Kozzy would shine again. I would love to have him back.

and of course... Calgary has the good fortune of playing Carolina (shocking... 3-1 so far)

Zubov doesn't sound like he's ruled out the possibility of finding a way onto the team anyways... and of the omissions/snubs, I think he's the only legit one. Here's a quote from a fairly recent interview (from the KHL all-star game). Here's the full interview.

Yeah, I would say the way Hitchcock handled that whole thing was pretty stupid. Especially since, given how badly they are tanking, it would be a good season to get Filatov used to the NHL... oh yeah, and they could probably use the offense.

In 09 the sharks scored a whopping grand total of 3 goals in their 4 loses to Anaheim. In 08 the sharks scored an amazing 6 goals in their 4 loses to Dallas (3 of the loses went to OT, one to quadruple OT). It's a cop-out to blame goaltending for a team playing weakly, especially in the case of the Sharks, who can be horrendous defensively and rely on Nabokov to bail them out, and even when he does, they decide to stop scoring. In a short series, if the team in front of you isn't showing up, it's pretty easy to compile weak goaltending stats, just ask Osgood in 94, 96, 01, 02, 03, and 04. Conclusion - your conclusion is weak.

You guys are nutts. Nabokov is a phenomenal goalie, and he's played very well for them in the playoffs. Nabokov's GAA and SV% are both better in the playoffs, unlike Thornton and Marleau points totals, which decrease in the playoffs. He's also played extremely well for Russia in the World Championships and Olympics.

I'd be curious to see the riots all over Canada when it's a Sweden-Russia final

I forgot Cleary used to do stuff on the ice.

This would not be Phanuef's rookie season, like Ericsson, because as I've pointed out many times, Ericsson = last pick overall. It took Ericsson a lot longer to develop because he wasn't bred for this league and he simply didn't have the raw talent, size, potential, and years of North American play like Dion. As far as there being no criticism about Phanuef's game prior to Yzerman's decision? Very few pundits were anticipating Phanuef's inclusion. I doubt Phanuef's mother would vote him onto the team. I didn't even know Yzerman's decision was ever controversial. Green and Bouwmeester were ahead of Phanuef and they didn't make the cut either.

The line just has fantastic chemistry right now (reminds me of Naslund, Bert, n Morrison). Daniel is scoring at the same PPG rate, and would be near the league leaders in point too if it wasn't for his injury.

To me, any idea that includes extending the length of games should be tossed out immediately. Sorry, unless you intend to shorten the schedule in another way, or shorten games, then the season is already long and tough enough (just look at the injuries this year). The extra 5-10 minutes may not seem like much, but it adds up, and as fans of one of the consistently oldest teams in hockey, you should be seriously opposed to those kinds of ideas. What happens with back to back games? It's not at all unlikely that both could go to OT. We've already been to a total of 10 shootouts this year, meaning if we extended the game by 5 minutes, we could be talking about an additional 50 minutes of playing time, or nearly a full games worth. Considering we average what feels like (and yes I'm exaggerating) close to an injury a game, adding more playing time is just going to make things worse on teams like ours. All of that is speculative though, because here comes a dose of REALITY: The shootout is here to stay, whether you like it or not, because it's popular, ESPN friendly, and gives players a chance to be noticed as individuals, and not members of a team (and yes, that's a bad thing, but it's the reality of a society that centers everything around marketing). The most realistic thing to do would be to dull the stupid thing's impact by going to the point system some people have mentioned: 3 for a win in regulation, 2 for a OT win, 1 for an OT loss, and 0 for a loss. It's not ideal, but the extra points because of the shoot out make the thing to damn important, and at least the 3-2-1-0 system makes the shootouts less essential, even if they are still around.

Williams is our second best shootout guy behind Dats. At least amongst those that have a history of taking them. Zetterberg is the one we need to be removing from the rotation.

Again, some LGW posters thinking Ericsson is a future Norris candidate doesn't make it so. Who, with any authority or background in the sport has predicted Ericsson to be at that level? Is he getting paid to be there, or the minutes to be there, or the top-line pairing to be there, or the PP time to be there? Because Phaneuf is getting all of those, and failing with it.... Ericsson has a cap hit of 900,000, and was (I'll repeat myself again) drafted DEAD LAST in the draft. Nobody was projecting him to be ANYTHING, he has already exceeded expectations.. Phaneuf has a cap hit of 6.5 Million. To put it into perspective, we could clone Ericsson 7 times and still not exceed that overpayment... This comparison doesn't make sense, both for Wings fans projecting Ericsson to reach Norris levels, and for Phaneuf defenders to use the comparison as justification for Phaneuf's weak play. Consider that Phaneuf barely makes less than Lidstrom, has yet to win anything (or even show up enough to give his team a chance to win anything), he has regressed each of the last two seasons, has shown no leadership potential... he makes Lebda look smart with the puck... and he's about as cheap and scummy as Pronger... Not to mention, he's about to go play in the hockey hell of Toronto where psychologically weak kids like him frequently derail their careers (thanks in no small part to the Toronto media). I just don't see this ending well.

This thread needs to be labled Gaborik/Avs Without him that team would be royally boned.

You actually decided to compare the expectations from a guy drafted dead last in the draft to a Norris-trophy nominated guy drafted 9th overall? What a staggeringly stupid decision.

Yes yes, he's big and gets some points... that's not everything in the NHL. He's the type that beefs with GMs, he's regressed in every facet of his game the past 2 seasons, he takes stupid penalties, delivers Pronger-style cheap-shots, and isn't superb defensively.. I really don't think there are to many fans in Calgary sorry to see him go. And no, I would not want him on Detroit. Just because someone is a good player, doesn't mean he is a good teammate, or the kind of guy that is conducive to creating a winning mentality in a franchise. Granted, Phaneuf is young enough to turn things back around, but with this trade the Flames basically said "we doubt it."

I did the math with NHL.com. The west is: 109-63-20 against the east. Translation: the East is absolutely garbage. If the West was a team, and you average the West's record to what it would be on pace for in an 82 game season the West's record would be: 46-27-9 ... good for 101 points.

Yeah, I was going to say, the "I can't stand Pittsburgh" club isn't exactly low on members.

Giguere is the walking embodiment of streaky. He looks like a HOF bound goalie for a month, then like an AHL backup the next.

woot, two more big-named under-performers for the Leafs. Burke is taking a page out of the New York Knicks team building philosophy. As usual, Leafs fans will think they have a cup in the bag, and as usual they will miss the playoffs.