Wing Across The Pond

What I was going to say as well. He could be the new E, who has become quite stable. That being said, that Gustav Nyquist is one heck of a talent.

Quite a cool vid, but not been gripped by this years playoff promos. Don't think they quite grab the excitement for me. That being said, I was more excited than a kid at Christmas at the moment! Lets Go Wings EDIT: Embedded vid instead of linking

God it makes me wish the Ducks had won it! EDIT: He also likens Babs to Bombay... lol'd

Really cannot wait for puck drop! Love sitting in bed ready to watch some hockey. I sit in bed because it starts at 00:30 here

After his Carhartt ad, Mickey Redmond should do all Wings videos. He would be awesome saying all the lines in this advert.

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The main problem with divisional winners getting 1-2-3 isn't so much that it's unfair, but that it undermines the whole ranking system. The whole idea of seeding teams 1-8 is so that the "best" team in the conference (seed 1) has the advantage of playing the "worst" team (seed 8). That's their reward for being ranked 1st. Or the 8th seed's hurdle for finishing in the lowest position. By putting "worse" teams at 4, it ruins this system by saying "hey, you weren't great but you still get a lower ranked opponent"

The Production Line blog gave an interesting view on the reason to why Wings shipped Commodore to Tampa and didn't sign anyone else in his place... http://theproductionline.us/perhaps-that-guy-is-the-reason-the-wings-cut-mike-commodore-loose/ Interesting theory, just wondering what people think? I haven't seen the prospect at all so can't really comment but could Holland be THAT farsighted? Theories please.

Miller's a big guy and would probably have to use it more at center I imagine. Could do well. And as people have mentioned, I agree that Nyquist should be played with top line guys in the way that both Zetterberg and Datsyuk did in their rookie years. Certain players, like say Helm and Abby for arguments sake, grow by working with each other and almost bouncing off one another - kind of thinking about the chemistry that Drapes and Maltby had for all those years - whereas a player like Nyquist can grow to be like Z or Dats and be a top line guy who can really play with anyone, and can adapt a game to yield the best results. I say let the boy run around and have some fun EDIT: Clarification

Didn't he have his jaw wired as well? Or am I making that up? Tough thing to come back from and even participate in skates I'd imagine. The shockwaves that must be sent through a head with a wired jaw (if so) and concussion symptoms must be excruciating every time a skate plants on the ice. Really hope he gets back though as he's a real third line producer. He's our better Samuelsson and I agree with however said it that he could be a 20 goal scorer if he had the chance. EDIT: Spelling... which is unfortunate for a 22 year old really. Especially one who took Creative Writing modules at University

Hey, hey... we didn't come here for a lecture on existentialism lol joking aside, its an interesting point and sort of along my lines of thinking. Being from Britain, I often get asked why I support the Wings, and it's because they were the first team I ever saw on television. They, for me, signal the first foray into the world of ice hockey and so I've stuck with them ever since, and watched them change over the years. It probably helped that researching their history revealed quite a lot of success so it became easier for me to choose. It also lead to me following the Tigers for the second half of the year more recently as I fell in love with Michigan sports. But it's very much my way of looking at things. It's an odd place that we live in where we'd choose to sit in the house and watch people sitting in a house (Big Brother). We do the same with sport. Perhaps if it happened to be another team on TV that night I would be supporting them to this day, but I was involved with the Wings then, and still am now. That's the luck of it I guess. I also think the sport has something to do with it... after playing for most of my childhood, I've given up on football (soccer) pretty much all together now. It's a declining sport with it's influx of prima donnas.

Being over in England I don't get to watch much Minor League hockey (if at all) so he has impressed me greatly. Last night he managed to read plays and cut out passing lanes at least 2 or 3 times. He's like the sort of defenceman we build around and, to a certain extent, wanted Ericsson to be - play smart, sensible hockey that takes away chances before they even begin to develop. He's going to be big, so give him some Major time

I know this post was from a while ago, but with the release of some post-season adverts recently there's been no Crosby/Penguin love. It's been Dats, the Sedins, Lundqvist, Rangers, Bruins. So far. So I don't think they're really forcing him down our throats as much these days. If they plaster him over the NHL homepage after a particular game, it's probably because he is the best player in the league and he's doing well after so long out. That's the thing, you rarely see Dats out there short handed these days, bit more the other night now Helm is out, but it's usually the bottom 6 guys, maybe Fil or Z. It's like we're trying to make him our premier offensive guy which has lead to some slightly increased numbers and greater publicity, but it also means the 'better 2-way player' argument is getting closer. Not saying Sid is the better defensive player, but he's improved a hell of a lot. Interesting though how a defenceman is never mentioned in the 'best player' argument either. Saw a stat in the game against Washington I think it was, that said Lids has a +/- of 454, whilst second all time in franchise history was Fedorov with +200-odd. But alas I guess Dmen just don't really get the goals that win games.

Would also say about people thinking he should hang it up, it'll have more of an impact than one would think about whether Lids decides to call it a day. I'd take Homer's reduced minutes and ability to tip the odd puck if it meant Lids agreed to one more year. I think when one of them goes, the other will be close behind.

Strike me down for thinking positive in here, but I'm gonna say that Conks will be stellar in net. Reaffirm his place as a solid back-up. Roll into the post-season with confidence at the goaltender position to take some heat off the defencemen, who can then maybe relax a bit and not try to push it too hard thus reducing the amount of mistakes. That in turn will sort the PK out whilst at the same time reducing the amount of goals against. We get at least one more than they do. Happy days And now, since I've said it, it HAS to happen. Please let it happen! Still, I feel quietly confident that tonight sees it start to get better.

This is it. His whole career has been based on it. When he plays with guys like Dats and Z he's that sort of guy. When he plays with bottom line guys, he's useless. It's very much a case of both situations. Play him with Z and D, or don't play him at all. Also, play Dats with Z or Flip, but not both I don't think. Too similar. Dats, Flip, Bert would be good.

Homer is a warrior, but his game is playing off of players like Z or Dats. He's not a 4th liner, hence the lack of identity. Cleary could be a beast down there and give his brand of gritty game on the 4th line, plus I think he'd be man enough to accept that role as well. The analogy of the car, whilst quaint and eloquent, is misleading. It suggests that when we lose one piece the others fall apart. It's more like taking the four wheels to be Dats, Lids, Z, Howie (say for arguments sake) then when they're injured replacing them with a milk crate, a corner section of Scalextric track, an overused VHS of the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, and a Fast Break. I know I'm being flippant, but the current situation isn't like we're a crap team who utterly, completely must have them to function whilst other teams can deal with it, it's simply that we're stacked with injuries at the moment and the players who are being asked to come in and replace them either haven't developed yet or are severely inexperienced. In short, they're just DIFFERENT pieces. Whoever it was that said teams like the Pens don't fail like this, I'd like to see them without star centre Crosby AND top scorer Malkin... AND starting goaltender Fleury for that matter........ AND a top-line defencemen like Orpik. Because that's what we've been going through. Not to mention we had players like Bert out (so say, take out Staal there), Helm now.... We're simply injured. It's a bit of a kick in the face to say that without a few certain parts this team isn't worth jack. I miss Aaron Downey

Thank goodness Lidstrom doesn't think like you.

I can say from experience, that beers at the Pete this year are $9 from the tap, $12 from the can. $35 down there is worth about 3 beers so I'd expect people to probably neck 4 or 5. Plus it probably wont be endorsed by the Bolts as they only serve Bud or Miller I think (can't remember which one). To slip off topic as well, Christmas Eve a friend bought a round of Blue Moon with orange slices in them and it was terrible. The beer wasn't too bad but this fool had to throw in the fruit slice Safe to say he didn't get a Christmas present for that one! From what I gather after my one and only tipple, is that it's like Hoegaarden, which is very lovely indeed.

I give big E a heck of a lot of credit for agreeing to stop playing Center though. Imagine that, playing as a forward your whole life, a scout sees the one game you play defence and decides to try and convince you to play the rest of your career there. Hats off to him for that. For some reason I feel far better with him in there over Kindl. He's gone off the boil. Perhaps its simply a case of E thinking too much, almost like because it's not his 'natural' position (which it actually has come to be over the years) that he's scared to make even the slightest wrong move and he gets himself into a muddle. Then again, how do you tell a guy who's that worried to do everything right, just to calm down a little. That's what I think anyway. The head can mess with even the best of us.

Don Cherry's tombstone will read, "...AND ANOTHER THING!" Ron MacLean's will be blank. With coaches being fired like this it can only be motivational. In soccer over here Chelsea Football Club have just sacked their 5th head coach/manager in 5 years. If the players can play to a certain level but for some reason consistently don't, then you have to look elsewhere for the problem. A coaching change could do that. But I have to say, stick with a coach for a few years at least, let them settle and get a team working rather than jerking the knee. Also such a sad story at the end of that HNIC vid. For someone so young and small to have battled bravely for so long, only to be taken by sheer chance. So sad.

Yeah, I wasn't going to say anything really apart from the fact that he hasn't played a whole season nigh on since Frankie Goes To Hollywood were in the charts. He's a work horse for someone who constantly gets knocked on his can and knows that it's going to happen again as soon as he's back on the ice. Dats doesn't get knocked much but core strength like that doesn't come with a few months training. He's worked at that for years, something unfortunately Cleary doesn't have the time or the fresh body to do. Also Bert plays the game smart like a future coach. I like smart. Franzen pisses me off from time to time but his pros outweigh the cons for me. Hudler is having a good season on the back of a few shaky years (personally and professionally). I mean jeez, we're not a gung-ho score-at-all-costs team. We're defensively strong and build around that. It's no mystery that we prefer our forwards to play D and our D to play sensible and smart. And that we invest time into a goaltender who was over-ripe when coming into the NHL for the purposes of having him play a lot of hockey and learn from consistent playing time. I couldn't care really that Franzen isn't a 50 goal scorer. As long as he gets us the one that wins (which he's been doing all year).

If we are still in the market for a trade, does Vancouver moving pieces around make life more difficult for us? Per Bob McKenzie... If we target players such as Ott or Brown, is there a more than possible chance they take a team like Vancouver instead? Discuss EDIT: To a certain extent, true with the Rangers as well...

Lol, us having ANOTHER Drew Miller?! God I love that man Jimmy Howard, more and more each day